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Midnight Reverie 



c4 Subjective Study" 
sT A Soul 



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BjT STEEL CUBE W4v 

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Printed for the author by 
Crane CBi Company 

Topeka, Kansas 



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Copyrigrht 1W2 

By Crane C& Companj^ 

Topeka, Kansas 



GCI.A327424 



Midnight Reverie 



PREFACE. 

February 23, 1912. 

Midnight Reverie was written not as a studied pro- 
duction, but rather it came as a spontaneity from God 
himself, acting through your humble servant. Not a 
word of it was copied even from another sheet, except 
as quoted. Just once was a sheet rejected when begun, 
and that was due to other work requiring the use of the 
machine. 

I have to acknowledge that in two different instances 
I was forced to record, what was originally in my mind, 
in a totally different manner. Do you ask how? 
Well, friend, the keys went down that way, almost in 
my absence. 

This is offered over the signature of my pen-name, 
which is obscure, because it is the matter and not the 
man for consideration. From the noble North to the 
sunny South, from the effeminate East to the watery 
West, there is one dominant call, viz. : Be true to that 
which came as your birthright. 

Respectfully submitted. 

Steel Cube. 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE. 

The writer writes, as a bird sings, because he cannot 
help it. So all things that Steel Cube writes are songs 
set to music in his soul. 

The hour is 2 a. M., and all is still, so still, yet eyes 
are wide open. What is the trouble, boy : can you not 
sleep? I suppose I could, but it is more interesting to 
be awake just now. Thoughts are so clear and peace 
quiets the soul. There are no sounds to jar the sense 
of hearing, no light to' disturb the sense of sight— a 
soul is alone with its Creator. The great mystery of 
life moves the soul to wonder. This was the prayer 
before sleep closed the eyes the night before, and every 
night before since I can remember : ^'Gracious Spirit, 
I beseech that every thought, act, word, and deed that 
proceeds from me may be ordered of Thee.'^ Here in 
the dead of night is an opportunity to commune, and 
there is that which gives answer. Laws of nature, or 
speculations concerning such, are of no consequence 
now. This is a time of activity in the realms of the 
unseen world. Do I see a ghost? or do other fears 
seize my mind? Not so, for I do not believe that way. I 
am not responsible for my existence, so what have I to 
fear? If there be that in me which pleases the Creator 
to use to benefit mankind, then I am willing, and I 
touch these keys to that purpose. Were I called to 

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8 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

die this minute because my life has run its course, it 
seems that no fear would be present* Why these wake= 
ful hours in dead of night, then the calm repose which 
follows? I am studying the mysteries of Ufe ; I want 
to help mankind, each individual, to see himself in the 
light of his Creator. We cannot deny that there is a 
purpose in our existence ; the poorest of us have our 
stations where we can do the most good for humanity. 
We were created selfish beings, and that is the law of 
activity among men. The Christ came to teach in op- 
position to this law, as it appears to many, but a close 
analysis proves that He was the most selfish of beings. 
He taught absolute unselfishness. Why? Because it 
is best for each individual to be so. There is the 
paradox. It comprehends the underlying principle of 
life as it has come to me. Christianity should be ir- 
resistible, and will be so as we grow into a compre- 
hension of it. It has gone feminine because heroism 
has been taken from it. When men were called on to 
give their lives in its defense, there were ample martyrs 
to burn at the stakes. So we have missed the principle 
of it, for modern teaching tends to ignore one's self, 
which is unscience. It certainly was the best thing 
possible for Christ to do when He gave up His life in 
the manner as recorded — then He served selfishness in 
the highest degree. Suppose that every child were 
taught the principle that it is best for him to be un- 
selfish ! It would come to this : The farmer would 
plow his field for the benefits of his neighbors, the 
manufacturer would operate his mills for his neighbors, 



MIDNIGHT REVEKIE 



etc., each helping the other in the degree of his abiUty 
and in the end the great law of God would prevail as 
expressed by Christ when He taught: ^^ Consider the 
lilies, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they 
spin/' etc. But unless we rely on the higher law we 
can never possess ourselves of it, because of other law 
upon which it depends, in the great plan, for support. 
We have inalienable endowments, as mental and 
physical powers, mental and physical activities, to use 
in fulfilling the great plan of the universe. How shall 
we use them? Just as God intended. Are you lost, 
i. e., do you not know how that is? — Throw yourself in 
the negative state of prayer and wait. Are you alone, 
oppressed, in prison? No matter; there is no power 
over you only as God gives it — so you are in the right 
place. Are you big enough of soul to acknowledge it? 
Your eyes will be opened if you are. 



January 8, 1912. 

The dog howled, the clock struck 2, sleep fled — 3, 4, 
5 the clock announced the hours. What is the trouble? 
Nothing at all. I am just thinking, thinking. Got no 
pains for your indigestion? None. What is there 
about the dead hours of night that makes wakefulness 
so interesting? The soul communes with its Maker. 

This question is asked : ^'How is prayer answered?'' 
Like drops of rain fall the thoughts ; finally they grav- 
itate, form a stream, and flow in definite form to give 
understanding. Manifestations were — First, a con- 
sciousness of external reahty, swelling of soul in 
joyous exuberance, followed by an analysis of my own 
existence ; and second, an attempt to try out the new 
experience. 

It seemed that instead of one self, ego, there were 
two, a positive and a negative self; i. e., a conscious 
and an unconscious self. The conscious self was re- 
flected, so to speak, from the unconscious self. The 
unconscious self seemed fleeting and impossible to 
hedge in or make subject to volition, yet at certain 
times it was most insistent, painting impressions of the 
past, or forecasting the future. Is this thing not sub- 
ject to law, the conscious self inquired, and is it not 
possible to reduce it to a certainty so as to be of definite 
service when needed? It appeared that the uncon- 
scious self is the soul-mate of the conscious self ; that 

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MIDNIGHT REVERIE 11 

it follows eternally like a shadow, receiving impressions, 
and at calmer moments suggesting in the negative or 
positive attitude to the conscious self. Being unre* 
sponsive to the will, it comes or goes in obedience to 
some other power. Is that which gives answer, then, 
nothing more than this unconscious self asserting its 
existence? It is so, no doubt, yet to know how we are 
made is a long step toward the solution of the mysteries 
of life. The fact that we have two eyes, or two nervous 
systems, or two hearts, is of little consequence to us, 
only we are made that way. We look through our 
organism to see the plan of the Creator. Then the 
fact that I have a conscious and an unconscious self 
is of some importance to me, for I wish to use every 
force within my sphere of activity. If this unconscious 
self is not subject to volitions of the will, then I want 
to know how it was intended to be used. 

Through the long hours the battle went on, and point 
after point was fixed. Our soul-mate, the unconscious 
self, is the connecting link that binds us to the Creator. 
He is silent when forced to be so, or our benevolent 
benefactor when conditions are so ordered that he has 
power. Does it make any difference, then, what kind 
of thoughts I allow to take possession of my mind, so 
long as action is stayed? It certainly makes a great 
difference how this unconscious self is impressed, for 
he will be sure to reflect these things back into con- 
sciousness, possibly when they are least welcome. 
What is the effect if our thoughts and our lives are so 
hard that this unconscious self cannot be heard at the 



12 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

throne of consciousness? His reflections are black as 
night because of what has been committed to b'm, and 
if there is enough light to permit one ray to enter into 
consciousness, it is certain to condemn the unhappy 
self in consciousness. What is the effect if the two, 
the positive and the negative self, are so in harmony 
that they are practically one ? I imagine that such was 
the condition in the Christ life. Who knows what laws 
become subject to one's command when this con- 
dition prevails? The Bible is filled with mysteries, 
which we have no right to dispute until the purity of 
our lives reveals the truth to us. That everything 
is well ordered, we must concede ; we also must con- 
fess that ''What is is right,'' for the time being at least. 
This was the final question committed to Mr. Uncon- 
scious Self: Is wrong right? 



Jantjary 9, 1912. 

How is prayer answered? This is the question that 
started the battle that lasted for over three hours one 
night the dog howled. I always thought that the 
canine creature howled because it was too cold, for the 
mercury stood 30 degrees below zero that night. At 
any rate, I was awakened out of my sleep by that dis- 
mal sound, and, as is often the case, refused to sleep. 
Yet I have always entertained the thought that wake- 
fulness is generally caused by bad digestion, though 
insomnia may be caused by various things : alcoholic, 
febrile, lithemic, insomnia are each due to direct causes. 
What is the name of that caused by a dog-howl? 

The positive and the negative self had a set-to that 
night, and the mental activity was such that much of 
the matter went on record — though I find it a different 
thing to clothe the thought with adequate words. 
Prayer being a sort of passive attitude, the matter 
given out at such times evidently impresses the un- 
conscious self to such a degree that other and more 
subtle laws than we know are set in motion, or rather 
become operative. The selfish man or woman prays 
for self to the exclusion of others, as some of our great 
men have told them to do, because of the utter foolish- 
ness of uttering prayer for that which is not subject to 
our own volition.' The more ardent believers gush out 
with all kinds of good words for their fellow-men. Do 

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14 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

you say in vain? What are we to do about that soul- 
mate, the unconscious self? He is right with you all 
the time to catch the impressions, to reflect them, to 
carry them. Prayer is a scientific fact. Why, have 
you not had something come to your memory from the 
past as though a prophetic thing; i. e., something 
which was in your memory years ago and now called 
out by the happening of that thing, which was evidently 
in the mind sometime in the past, though vague, it 
may be? I have, and I have always explained it as 
some dream, which made a forecast, though long since 
forgotten. These things have bothered me somewhat, 
but now I see how they are — thanks to that dcg-howl. 
The unconscious self is not limited by the bounds of 
clay which hold fast the conscious self. He can per- 
meate space as quickly as you can think of the far-off 
star, known to be so many billions of miles away. 
What are those miles to thought ! Then if you impress 
him with the earnestness of your thoughts in behalf of 
some one else, do you think it impossible that the im- 
pression so given cannot be communicated to whomso- 
ever you will? Did you never have an experience 
similar to this : One day we sat at table and I was 
thinking of something rather strongly, when all of a 
sudden wife speaks up on the very subject that engages 
my thoughts at the time. Of course you have had such, 
and many such, like experiences. How do you account 
for it? The unconscious self transmitted the impres- 
sion and communicated it to the conscious self of my 
wife, else her unconscious self did likewise for me. The 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 15 

same law is applicable in either case. What are you 
going to do about prayer? Do you suppose that the 
Creator gave us the unconscious self for no purpose? 
Each soul has its soul companion that flits about 
through the unseen world to benefit its counterpart. 
If some one has good thoughts for me, my unconscious 
self is cognizant of the fact, and at some opportune 
time will convey the impression to my conscious self — 
not in definite words, maybe, but in that soul satis- 
faction which it is the privilege of every one to enjoy. 
How do you suppose the Berserkers of old were im- 
pressed during their passive moods? What do you 
think their soul-mate said to their conscious self? 
^'Look out! There they are with their daggers, ready 
to strike you down.'' The Christian Spirit had little 
hold on the minds of men those days. How, then, do 
you suppose prayer is answered ? It sets in motion that 
which brings into operation the supreme laws of the 
imseen world. 



January 10, 1912. 

Is wrong right? Here is a question that was given 
to test the reality of the unconscious self. One night 
about the usual hour, 2 a. m., I was thinking, and think- 
ing about those things which trouble my thoughts 
during wakeful hours, when the soul-mate suggested 
that two men are fighting : something gave the names 
Wilson and Smith. They are both spirited men and 
of equal honesty at heart, but they both consider that 
it is their respective duty to defend the matter in 
question; so there is a spirited contest. And yet 
there was no settlement of the difference between them. 

The unconscious self was not able to give me any 
satisfaction on the question given out some time ago, 
but the food for thought is ample, and one is able to 
draw his own conclusions as to whether wrong is right. 

When we stop to consider, there is really no such 
thing as right and wrong. What we call right is that 
which has yielded the best results down through the 
ages ; i. e., what we think are best results. That kind 
of right might be entirely reversed before the next 
cycle of centuries rolls around. So with wrong. A 
thing is wrong only with reference to something else. 
In considering the relation of things, we have grown 
into the habit of regarding this or that wrong ; e. g., 
a lie is fundamentally wrong because of the conse- 
quence of it. If there i(s no standard of dealing between 

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MIDNIGHT REVERIE 17 

man and man, we see at once the confusion which would 
result. Anything that tends to upset the confidence 
men should have in one another necessarily disturbs 
their business dealings, hence from the time the Deca- 
logue was given at Mt. Sinai it has been regarded as im- 
moral to lie. Yet to lie is as natural as to breathe. We 
call it wrong because with reference to right it is wrong. 
We call the truth right because it tends to develop 
that which we call best in men. It is so with every- 
thing else. One thing is right because we know that 
down through the ages it has proven good to mankind. 
The counterpart of that thing — i. e., that upon which 
it depends in order that we may know by contrast 
what we consider — we call wrong ; e. g., monogamy has 
proven itself the proper thing for us in this age. It pro- 
tects the sancity of the home, which is good, but poly- 
gamy is wrong, if we accept the truth of the above. So 
with law. A certain doctrine is regarded as right, and 
is followed by the judges, one copying the other until 
the principle involved is crystallized into the law of 
the land. But we could not know what we consider 
only for the counterpart — the wrong of the right laid 
down in the law. Then what we call wrong is just as 
necessary as that which we call right, for the way we 
are organized the law of opposites is ever before us, and 
thus we think. Mankind has found it expedient to 
adopt standards, so we have standards in weights and 
measures, standards in spelUng, definition, pronuncia- 
tion, grammar, etc., etc. We also have a standard of 
ethics — the Christ life. For us nowadays, it is simply 



18 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

a matter of judgment to know right from wTong as we 
have developed, for, being in doubt, all we need to do 
is to apply the standard. We compare the matter in 
question with the adopted standard in that line, and 
instantly know whether it be right. But as fine as we 
have things worked out, did the thought ever occur 
to 3^ou that right and wrong were created alongside ; 
that the Creator had a purpose in so creating things, 
and that all creation must serve its purpose? If we 
look with equal reverence upon the good and the evil, 
as we must if we are consistent in our regard for God 
and His creation, how does crime loom up in that light, 
and the criminal ? Do you ask what good is there in 
this? I become broader, my sympathies extend down 
as well as up, and I withhold harsh judgments of my 
fellow-man when I look at both sides of God's creation. 
Is right wTong? This is the first question reversed, 
and on its answer depends something of what has gone 
before. The picture of the two men fighting was sug- 
gested bj^ the unconscious self as a leader to the answer 
required. One man was necessarily WTong and the 
other right, if the matter at issue was irreconcilable. 
Men are certainly fools for fighting so spiritedly if no 
antipathj^ existed between them. When I fight, I 
certainlj^ w^ant to know that there is no other way out 
of the difference between me and m}^ antagonist. In 
that the issue remained unsettled in the end, our con- 
clusion has to be that the question of right and WTong 
was not involved, for certainly my unconscious self, 



MIDNIGHT EEVEEIE 19 

i l l i r iii - >i > -> ( II I ■ «i III . . !■ ■ ^ii.ii.. ...■ n il .. I ■ ■III! M<ii.i.i ii«i 

as smart as he ought to be, would not have me believe 
that right suffered defeat, or could not conquer. 

Did it ever occur to you that we may be wrong in 
our fundamental beliefs of things? We are so in the 
habit of saying this is right and that is wrong, that we 
regard ourselves as infaUible upon points which seem 
so clear to us. But it is because we have been so 
taught. I suppose that, were we correct in all our 
statements and judgments, we would say that what we 
see should be stated the other way. Remembering a 
case of peculiar sickness some years ago, the doctors 
called in to treat the case found that the eyes were so 
affected that the patient could not read unless the 
paper were inverted before the eyes. Then the 
printed page appeared perfectly natural to the patient. 
This peculiar fact so impressed me that I remembered 
it in connection with my study of physics — ^how the 
image becomes inverted upon the condition of the 
light passing first though a lens. The question was 
asked in the class : ^^Does the image which falls on the 
retina of the eyes become inverted because of the light 
having passed first through the crystalline lenses of the 
eyes?'' The professor answered '^Yes,'' but he added 
that it made no difference to us about the inverted 
image, because that is the way we learned to see things. 
That is it — we have learned things in a certain way, and 
to our minds that is the way they are. If some one 
should try to prove to us that what we call blue is in 
reality orange, the complement of blue, we would go 
right on calling it blue just the same, because we 



20 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

learned it that way. If the peculiar effect on the 
retina of my eye is such that I recognize blue when an 
object is brought within the range of my vision, I am 
certain to call it by the name I learned for that peculiar 
effect, though to some other mind that same effect may 
be orange or black; yet in deference to my fellow- 
man, it is my duty to say, ^^If that object is orange to 
your eye, my friend, we shall not fall out about that, 
because I have no way of knowing that the same object 
before our eyes produces the same effect upon both 
the retinas of our respective eyes/' So we quit at that, 
each with the proper feeling that he is right and the 
other is wrong. Then is right wrong? How is the 
answer to be? Had my unconscious self made either 
man in the fight the victor, I would have drawn the 
conclusion that there is such a thing as right and wrong 
— I mean absolute right and absolute wrong, such a 
right as will not change down through the ages and 
on through eternity, such a wrong that is ever and for- 
ever wrong with no hope of anything better. To il- 
lustrate : Take the idea of God, which has been subject 
to constant change as man has advanced. The God of 
the Israelites was an awful God ; so awful was He that 
we are ashamed today of some of the attributes as- 
cribed to that God. Then what is passed off as right 
in this age may be shamefully wrong in the next cycle 
of ages; so things are right or wrong as the great 
Author of all so ordains them for the time to workout 
his laws in the accomplishment of His plan. Then our 
great need is a prayerful attitude. 



January 14, 1912. 

Was the Christ a Selfish Person? This question was 
given to my unconscious self — perhaps underconscious 
would be a better name for him — one night when he 
seemed especially playful, presenting all sorts of enter- 
taining pictures. I remember one that he alwaj^s in- 
sisted on presenting when my thoughts were troubled 
with the origin of man, and he continued to present it 
until I took notice of the fact. Then — ^well, I never 
had it again. If you are interested in knowing what 
that is, I'll say that it was a fish swimming close to the 
top of the water; then a duck would take his place 
and vanish. Aren't these strange, mirth-provoking 
things to write down? I am certainly convinced that 
they have a place, and if some wiser man can work 
them into useful knowledge, I shall feel well repaid for 
the effort it costs to do the work. 

As to the question, no certainty ever came in form of 
an answer, but, like nature in every place, there was an 
approximation. I mean this : Nature does not move 
on definite lines, nor will she be annoyed, or vexed, if 
things do not come right up to the mark on the third 
day of grace, e. g.: A gardener wishes to raise a garden ; 
he does his part of the work, we may say, according to 
the most approved scientific methods, but he is located 
on some spot where rainfall is usually generous. His 
seeds are in the finest seed-bed imaginable, and wait- 

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22 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

ing for the necessary moisture to germinate them. The 
weather is dry, too dry to sprout the seeds, and spring 
is getting well advanced. The gardener is worried for 
fear his garden will come to naught, but the tardy rains 
begin to fall, the ground is warm, and soon the seeds 
shoot up their tiny leaves and grow beautifully; but 
the rains cease before enough moisture is available to 
develop the plants well. Does Nature get out of sorts 
with herself and refuse to do anything toward pro- 
duction? No, she will do her best under the existing 
conditions, so that she will make something of value 
and bring it to maturity, if possible at all. Man's 
part is to help her to the best of his ability and take his 
lessons from her. How manj^ are they who never 
learned this. Do the best that is in you, taking con- 
ditions as they are, not as you think they ought to be. 

To approximate an answer to the question pro- 
pounded, it falls to me to write a criticism on Christ. 
There are several distinct stages of thought to con- 
sider. First, all we know of the remarkable life is 
what is recorded by the gospel writers, but judging from 
the simplicity of the gospel writers, they were in no 
wise ^^making out a case.'' The record was made up 
long before there was any written matter on the sub- 
ject, and what remained in the minds of these writers 
was refined down to the last degree ; so, to be fair, we 
must accept their statements with due consideration 
for the times in which they lived. Next, the life as 
we see it, then the conclusion. 

The great feature of the Hfe is love. He had a long, 



MIDNIGHT REVEKIE 23 

long line of ancestors who were committed to the one 
simple faith of their Father Abraham. Their lives 
were comparatively pure, being purged from time to 
time in the most severe and trying manner. Finally 
the pure Virgin Mary, who was able to bring forth the 
Son, lived to bless motherhood. If God had no hand 
in the development of the race of Jews, which was able 
to produce the Christ, it certainly was lucky for man- 
kind that Abraham had such a vision as to pin the 
faith of all Jewry for these centuries on the promises 
recorded. It is certain, if all else fail, that God ac- 
comphshes His purposes through His natural laws. If 
He chose to ^^Give His only begotten Son'' to the 
world. He did so by rearing the race of Jewish people 
as a medium through which the Great Gift may be 
accomplished. 



J.Os'r.\iiY U, 1912. 

WTiatever the condition, we are the proud possesscrs 
of the benefits which followed in consequence of the 
Christ life on earth. Whomever He noticed or touched 
they still live in our memories,, even the diseased woman 
who wished simply to touch the hem of His garment. 
This fact alone is no mean e^'idence of His di\inity, 
which is of Uttle concern to us. Let us be agnostic on 
this point, for it is of no consequence when we know oui- 
selves. If the Christ be di\ine. He certainly used the 
natural laws that are still extant, and they may be used 
again in the same way whenever the same conditions 
prevail again. 

Aside from this, we have to look upon the Ufe as we 
know it. He was human to the extent that He pos- 
sessed human feehngs. Would you call Him proud? 
Yes, the proudest person that ever lived — but His pride 
had a different ring to it, for some reason. We are apt 
to get proud because of our worldly possessions, but 
Christ lived on a higher plane. Worldly possessions 
had no attractions for Him. and He was certainly proud 
that they did not. Worldly honor had no attraction 
for Him, as e\idenced by the gospel writers. If he 
was urged in the matter of becoming king. He was cer- 
tain to get away from the crowd,, go to the hills, by the 
sea, — any place to get away. Repeatedly He told 
them, "My kingdom is not of this world." He had 

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MIDNIGHT REVERIE 26 

such a ©-asp of the mysteries of life that to Him the 
world was of no consequence, except that he wished, 
just as any other properly organized human being 
wishes, to serve the highest purpose of which He was 
capable while life was His own. It seems to me that 
this is the essence of our being. Unless we recognize 
the fact that we are not responsible for our presence on 
earth, that we are here simply to serve the purpose of 
the Creator — let that be as ^^ vessels of dishonor,'' as 
Paul says, if need be — until that time, we are mere 
flowers, growing, budding, blooming in obedience to 
some law, we know not what. Evidence is everywhere 
pressing that Christ used His powers to the greatest 
possible good. For what, do you ask? Take His 
word for it — ''For His Father.'' This was the pride 
of His soul to answer thus. That same Father is ours, 
just the same, but the purity of the Christ hfe, purged 
down through generations of simple ancestors, and 
again refined in His own life, gave Him such under- 
standing of the natural forces that He was able to use 
them to the astonishment of the ages. Then was the 
Christ a selfish person? What must the answer be? 
He was, because He served the purpose for which He 
was created, knowing that it was best /or Him to do so. 
In the manner in which we in our short-sightedness, are 
selfish. He was absolutely unselfish. When we recog- 
nize that pride is at the root of all selfishness, we should 
take care as to the kind of pride that possesses us. Be- 
cause of His command of laws which seem beyond us, 
He was able to live on a higher plane of activity, but 



26 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

He said soothingly, "You shall do greater things than 
these/^ Friends, the laws are ours to operate just as 
soon as our wisdom proves sufficient. Nor will it be 
some vast, complex thing when it is discovered, but 
the simplest of the simple. Trace the Jewish history 
for the secret. 

I am satisfied that I have an underconscious self, 
the same as Abraham must have had. I believe that 
we all have that underconscious self which we should 
treat with as much consideration as we would the most 
welcome guest of our acquaintance — more, with a 
reverence which would please God to smile upon. It 
is then that our lives will begin to trace out the pur- 
poses of our existence, thus fit into the noble niches 
which we are destined to fill. Until we do so build, we 
are but poor, blind, dumb animals, groping our way 
in darkness ; filling our purpose, to be sure, but on a 
scale so low that we shame our kind, if we must com- 
pare our fives with that of the Christ, which it is our 
high privilege to do, thus get ghmpses of the great 
hereafter. Nor will our echoes mock us, as IngersoU 
says, using his figure in comparing life with a vale : 
"Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren 
peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look 
beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the only 
answer is the echo of our wailing cry.'' (Col. Inger- 
solFs address over his brother's — Eben IngersoU's — 
dead body, in Washington, D. C, June 2, 1899.) 

Adore the name of Col. IngersoU, if you may. Judge 
him not whether he was a ^^ vessel of dishonor.'' It is 



MIDNIGHT BEVERIE 27 

due him to respect his name because it pleased God to 
create so eloquent a man. Was he right or wrong? 
It is not a question of right or wrong, for Col. Ingersoli 
strove to j&ll his life mission as earnestly as any other 
man whose name lingers on the pages of history. In 
that respect he filled God's purpose, and it is a bit of 
dogmatism, wholly unworthy of the respect of decent 
men, to say that God will or has condemned his life- 
work. Any man that obeys the dictations of his con- 
science is to that extent divine. Suppose that he does 
not obey his conscience, is a man still divine? Well, 
this takes on something of the jocular — but the keys 
went down that way. Ever 3^ member of creation has 
his divine origin, so partakes of divinity. If he rebels 
against that which is within him, there is a purpose in 
that, if he will trace it out in his wisdom. I am not 
saying that he will find what he seeks, but as sure as 
he begins in good faith, right there he starts toward the 
higher order of things, which it is his right to enter 
into and enjoy. But suppose he doesn't start? Then 
there is a purpose in that, and it will bud, bloom, and 
bear fruit somewhere down through the ages. Will it 
be good fruit? It certainly will be to the Creator's 
own taste, whether it pleases us or not. My idea of a 
God would dwindle down to nothingness if I had to 
suppose that an evil force has power over Him. The 
very essentials of a supreme being would be wanting. 
To my mind creation is as He wished it to be. If He 
turned a devil loose to prey upon us, that is a part of 
His plan and needs to be respected ; but if He did not 



28 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

turn him loose, I cannot believe that he ever got loose, 
or is loose today. The question of right and wrong 
becomes submerged, so to speak, leaving us free to 
obey that which is in us to the glory of Him who 
created us. Then it is the quahty of selfishness which 
we possess that should give concern in measuring our- 
selves with the Christ life. 

There is that in man, placed there by the Great 
Spirit, which impels him to act. He was given vo- 
Htion in order to play his little part. To a certain 
extent his will controls his being, but underlying his 
whole organization there is a subtle force beyond the 
control of his will, given to aid and bless him when he 
comes into the possession of what he can justly call his 
own. To the extent that he guards his thoughts in 
respect of the under conscious self, just so far he purges 
himself of the baser things, i. e.y in considering the 
higher law, those things which play no part — so be- 
comes pure. Christlike, and capable of using the forces 
linking him to all that is divine. Man's unselfishness 
tends to a higher form of selfishness, then the Christ- 
like selfishness approaches the infinite. It will be ages 
before we get a glimpse bej^ond the Christ where self 
is an infinitesimal quantity — yet it must come as surely 
as change characterizes activity. 



January 15, 1912. 

Are we wrong fundamentally? If there is no right 
or wrong, how in the name of common-sense can we be 
wrong fundamxentally? Right and wrong are com- 
parative terms, so with reference to something else 
only can we use the terms in their proper sense. The 
best we have, or that which we regard has pioduced the 
best results, we call right. To get right at the point, 
the very best thing the world has produced to date is 
the Christ Spirit; so in ethics, things are wrong or 
right as compared with Christian principles. Then 
how can we be wrong fundamentally when we uphold 
what Christ stood for? On this matter is where war is 
waged. We don't do it. 

The churches stand for regeneration, so called. The 
old man has to die so the new one can be born again. 
Well, all this phraseology may be right to the point ; 
I have heard it all my life, but must confess that it 
means but little to me today. There have been re- 
markable cases of conversion — but what is conversion? 
Then they tell us it is our duty to love our enemies, etc. 
That sounds famiUar, does it not? 

Let us get right at the foundation of the whole matter 
and talk with sense about ourselves. We are made. 
That fact goes undisputed. We have certain traits 
of character in cortimon. By this I mean that we are 
so made, or organized, that some of those things which 

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30 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

go to make up our characters are one and the same 
thing; e, g,, we are so constituted that we must act, 
whether right or wrong, generally speaking. What we 
are in reality is the sum of our activity. We have our 
hkes and our dislikes, and our personal pecuHarities. 
God made us as we are, whether He did it directly or 
indirectly — from Adam of mud down to present time, 
or from the first forms of life in ooze up through the 
various stages of evolution. We seem to have started 
from '^mother earth'' either way, and were shaped by 
the hand of the Creator. If He did not do it, who did? 
So we are made. It was put into the very heart of man 
to protect himself — which is a law of nature, Self- 
Preservation. That is our selfishness, we hear so 
much of. If I do not look after myself, being able- 
bodied and in possession of my powers, who will? God 
intended me to do that, or he would not have made me 
selfish. That I am limited in my activity, cannot be 
denied. If I go to take another's property, I have to 
possess greater strength than the man I rob, speaking 
as though in ancient times. But is not the same fact 
everywhere in nature to be observed? One law opposes 
another and they neutralize each other, so that what 
we have is the lesultant of forces. 

I not only was given my selfishness for a purpose, but 
I was given extraordinary powers to back it up. But 
every man of my acquaintance is the same in this re- 
spect. There may be others (amount iitg to mon- 
strosities) whom I have not seen to know if they be 
different. The extraordinary force of which I speak is 



MIDNIGHT KEVEKIE 31 

called temper. Do you possess it? I am quite sure 
that Christ possessed that quaUty of soul, or He would 
not have scourged those money-changers from the 
temple. He certainly got ^^hof that time. When 
temper rises, the powers of man become concentrated 
to the one issue — supposed to be self-preservation. In 
deadly combat, men may be stabbed repeatedly and 
feel no pain at the time, and every muscle is strained 
until strength is doubled or trebled, compared with the 
normal. I cannot deny that I have temper enough to 
serve my purposes in this age, but it only emphasizes 
the fact that my selfishness was meant to be supported. 
You say, now, that is the old man, and Christ says that 
you must be born again. I confess that Niccdemus is 
not the only man that was ever confused on this point 
(John iii, 4). Were Christ on earth teaching us today^ 
He would make use of different terms, I am quite sure. 
The meaning this phrase conveys to me is that we 
'^ Shall know ourselves.'' Unless we know ourselves 
we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. When I say, 
^^I do not know,'' I become as a little child. I confess 
I need instruction — I pray in using those words. 

It seems to me that the Great Spirit cannot but be 
pleased with this attitude, at least the Christ was 
pleased to compare us to lambs, sheep, babes, etc. 
But, you say, the old man has to die before we can be 
made new. This means to my mind that regeneration 
is not a miraculous change, but such a change as 
naturally follows certain conditions. The element of 
faith is employed to span that which we do not under- 



32 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

stand ; thus the simplest of us will not be shut out of 
the benefits which flow for all. ^^Born again '^ means, 
then, that one sees himself in a new light, or, in other 
words, he is coming to know himself. Now about 
conversion; it certainly is more simple. One may be 
converted only after being under conviction. Some- 
thing has caused him to think that he is wrong and he 
believes that he is wrong, so he turns from that to what 
he believes is right. This is all within his own power 
of choice, and happens somewhere every day. Some 
natures are so tensely organized that conversion 
amounts to little less than revolution in their entire 
nature. Then we have such things as hypnotism, self- 
hypnotism, etc., through the list, until we wonder that 
there is anything left to rehgion. Those who think 
they uphold that for which Christ stood, so far as I 
have been able to ascertain, are fundamentally wrong, 
because they do not get down to the foundation from 
which they should build, as Christ did. 

It is not to be supposed that Christ did not know how 
man is organized, which we do suppose when we set 
out to reorganize him according to the supposed 
Christian doctrine. Some would have me disregard 
myself, all for the love of my fellow-men. They would 
have me give my goods to the poor, or they would take 
them for themselves, all for the love of Christ. This 
is incompatible with the notion God had when he made 
me. I am supposed to look after myself, and I reason 
that each man was made after the same fashion. 

What has been said above is certainly correct for 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 33 

the plane which it occupies, but I confess that it is a 
low plane. It is not the exalted height from which 
Christ viewed humanity, but we had that first, and it of 
necessity comes first when we build from the bed-rock 
foundation. Now, we can think more clearly about 
these higher things which of necessity rest on the lower. 
Do you suppose that Christ would have me sell all I 
have, give the proceeds to the poor and follow Him, 
though I did not have the knowledge to get along off 
the county? I cannot conceive of such a thing. He 
would have me right in my place, making money to 
support those who do live on the higher plane in ac- 
cordance with higher laws, until, one by one, we are 
all able to so live. True, it is reported that he told his 
disciples to take no thought of themselves : '^ Consider 
the lilies,^^ etc. This was evidently to centralize their 
thoughts on the higher things which He was trying to 
impress upon their minds. That there is a higher law 
for us to utilize, following His example, there is little 
doubt. 

Are we wl'ong fundamentally? We certainly are, 
for we do not teach that Christianity proceeds from the 
subjective, but, instead, we maintain that it is our duty 
to love others, I do not say, hate others, nor do I 
say, not love others ; but I do say that too much stress 
has been put on objective love for Christ's sake. That 
love of others will follow naturally in the wake of right 
living, needs no argument. The forces which right 
living sets in motion, operating through the laws, are 
dominant, while the love is dependent. 



34 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

The God-given self-love is all the original man knew. 
He preyed upon others because of his self-love. His 
opponents likewise preyed upon him. In the original, 
we may say that opposing forces neutralized each other, 
from which grew respect for the forces of the opponent. 
It is in this negative condition that objective love has 
its roots. From the subject, due to the neutralization 
of incompatible forces, grew regard, esteem, love of 
fellow-man. The Christ pronounced this the greatest 
of the commandments, so we are not left to ourselves 
but urged to exercise our will-power to extend our self- 
love to include all humanity. Why? Because it is 
best for us. Why, then, in this age should the in- 
structions, which proceeded originally from Christ, be 
so warped and twisted as to be incompatible? — making 
it necessary to thwart God Himself, rather than go 
hand in hand with the natural, leading on to complete 
knowledge. Is it any wonder that men have been 
driven from the pews? When martyrs were required 
there were men to burn. Why take heroism away? — 
for man naturally loves the esteem of others. (It 
goes straight back to selfishness.) Were Christianity 
not perverted, heroism would be its crowning feature 
today. Could there be greater heroism than that dis- 
played on the Cross of Calvary? It is a wonderfully 
heroic deed for one to crush himself out of existence for 
the love of others — so wonderful, indeed, that Christ 
was the first great example of it ; and who has done 
likewise since? It would not be such a great sacrifice 
for us to do this if we understood, like Christ, that it is 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 35 

best for us here on earth — ^not a far-off heavenly re- 
ward altogether. Then we have gotten too far away 
from the subjective. 

This is a reversal of the natural, which cannot pre- 
vail. In this we have Christianity perverted, for it 
certainly needs to proceed from the foundation, and 
would be irresistible if taught subjectively. This is 
the thought : teach the child that it is best for him to 
be unselfish, not that Christ wants it so. We say too 
much about love as a duty, and not enough about the 
benefits to one's self by reason of following the right 
way as gauged by Christ's life. We must get it back 
to the subjective to be natural. All these centuries 
we have been fighting against the natural way of man. 
He will begin to realize for himself that there are higher 
laws which it is his right to operate before he follows 
very far along the pathway of Christ. From the higher 
point of view, the Christlike unselfishness, we must 
realize and teach the children to realize that it is best 
for us to be Hke Him, if we are to move upward. 



January 19, 1912. 

What is the A B C of rehgion? This was one 
question that was given underconscious self some time 
ago. He is so shppery and tricky that one cannot get 
hold of him any time he calls. In fact, it seems that 
he specially avoids one when he knows that you are 
after him. He delights to wait until one is perfectly 
composed and thinking at his ease, to appear with his 
funny pictures and silent whisperings. Then, if one 
listens to him, he certainly is entertaining for a while, 
and he seems to remember what one wants to know, 
for it is then that new thoughts come into one's mind. 

T\Tiat do you think of this prank? One dead hour of 
night I was wide awake, not especially happy, having 
been musing over my lot sometime before, when all of a 
sudden here came a most agreeable surprise in answer 
to a quickly put query as to what the future had in store 
for me. It was a most pleasing picture of a rose offered 
me. The petals were not completely opened, but more 
than half, so that, being between a bud and full bloom 
with a few rose leaves on the graceful stem, it was 
certainly beautiful in its freshness. The color was red, 
rather deep, and, being turned directly toward me, 
with the stem pointing away and inclined upward as 
though it came from heaven, it was certainly a study 
for an artist. I would recognize the picture among any 
number of similar pictures, were I to behold it on can- 

r36) 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 37 

vas. Maybe some artist is painting such a picture 
now, and I happened to get a gUmpse of it. At any 
rate, it awakened in me a pecuHar sense of pleasure, 
mingled with wonderment. Too many such pictures 
would puff one up, were there no counterparts to them. 
This one is more shocking, but I must tell it also. In 
reverie one black night, I cannot remember what my 
previous thoughts had been, but all of a sudden under- 
conscious self brought a skull floating in front of my 
mind's eye. The picture was vivid; as I remember, 
once before the skuU-and-crossbones were presented in 
a similar manner. That was some time ago, and I was 
thinking that perhaps my time had come, but I am still 
among the living. 

These stories call to mind another remarkable picture 
that came to my mental vision while I was in college. 
I was down with the measles, having an awful time. 
Sick, oh, so sick, yet not a measle would come through 
my thick skin. You may know what a person does 
when in such distress. Well, I had been taught to 
pray from infancy, the little prayer : ^^Now I lay me 
down to sleep,'' etc., so it was not a strange thing for 
me to do under the circumstances. So I busied myself 
with trying to talk to God, but like Ingersoll, all the 
satisfaction I got out of it was the echo of my own 
wailing. Being most persistent in accomphshing that 
which engages my attention, I would not, quite out of 
sheer habit of obeying my will ; so it went on. There 
would be an occasional lull in the supplications, then 
more, with increasing earnestness, but in vain. I do 



38 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

not know how long I continued in this state of mind, 
but being weak, I finally tired, and giving up in despair, 
turned on my side. The next instant the most beauti- 
ful angel face imaginable appeared to me. I cannot 
describe it, only it was so sweet. Do you think I shall 
ever forget that angelic countenance? Never, and I 
will venture this assertion : that in the hereafter, if I 
meet with that face, I certainly shall recognize it as the 
one I saw instantly after giving over my prayers as 
vain, while I lingered between life and death so long 
ago. Then what is the A B C of religion? It is the 
fact that God put into every human heart the irre- 
sistible desire to seek its Maker — to worship. That is 
truth. You can travel to the uttermost ends of the 
earth and the same story will come back to us as you 
tell of what you saw. It matters not what may be the 
color of the skin covering : a look into the heart of any 
man will reveal the same story — ^he was born to worship. 
He is in a strange land, not responsible for his being 
here, yet powerless to fathom the mysteries of life and 
death. In his utter helplessness his inherent quality 
of mind says to him: '^Worship the Great Spirit, for 
the soul says He is, and you may find your way back to 
Him.'' 



January 19, 1912. 
I suppose there are those who will try to answer these 
things by the use of some high-sounding phrase, as, 
'^Dominant Idea,'^ or the like; but it makes no dif- 
ference what the name of it is, so long as the thing 
itself is available to comfort and to bless humanity. 
When we get down to bed-rock and study ourselves, we 
see how we are made. The human mind is a wonder- 
fully complex thing, but it is subject to analysis to a 
certain degree. There is the quahty of mind desig- ^ 
nated as our feelings or sensibilities ; then we have the 
intellect and the will, all acting as an indivisible whole 
on whatever engages our attention, but the underlying 
principle of all manifestation is activity. Our thoughts 
will run ; we cannot stop them if we would, so the hand 
of the Creator meets us right at the beginning — ^we do 
not belong to ourselves. With the light of this thought, 
let us take a calm look at ourselves : We have feeUngs 
of sympathy, love, etc., and their counterparts. We 
enjoy them or they make us miserable. Why? Is 
there not some small thread of being somewhere that 
may haply be seized and followed on to wherever it may 
lead? Then follow, if your own soul does not make you 
afraid. If it does, there is need of that fear. That is 
a part of one, and the activity which it begets is sub- 
ject to laws which may be traced out and stated. 
There is nothing strange about a thing to those who 

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40 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

understand the laws which operate it, however mys- 
terious it may seem to others. It is great satisfaction 
to me to be able to divine things down to their last 
analysis, to ascertain the underlying principle, or law 
as it may be, which governs certain manifestations. 
If I cannot do it, the element of faith comes to my relief 
and the span perfects the whole, so I am disturbed only 
by the consciousness of my ow^n inability. Given, then, 
the underlying principle of activity, connected with 
the implanted instinct to w^orship, and we see the trend 
human affairs must take. Is it worth our while to 
think about rebelling because we are not our own? 
Then what is the A B C of religion? Search your own 
soul for the answer. It matters not where one may 
be or what his business is : you may be a saloon-keeper, 
selling the damnable drinks over the bar, but it makes 
no difference to your own soul, so long as you are true 
to yourself, obeying the quickening influence of your 
underconscious self. Once discovered as a part of 
one's self, it seems but shortsightedness not to follow 
the lead of some quickening, subtle force in one's being. 
The church may be as far away from true religion as 
east is from west. In fact, I cannot go to church and 
enjoy all I hear there. Ministers are short in some 
way, if I must pass judgment on them, though I be- 
lieve they are perhaps more nearly right than any other 
class of persons. Notwithstanding all this, their ser- 
mons are but the prating of an old hen — to approxi- 
mate Henry Ward Beecher's figure when he said : ^'I 
worship the tender, loving spirit of God out of which 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 41 

theology has cheated us. Put that in theology and 
you would not want any pictorial illustration. So as 
to ministering angels : I never thought of an angel 
except with wings. I never saw an angel painted with 
wings that it did not look like an old hen to me! So 
with ministering angels. The moment you apply to 
them all that belongs to them, that moment you destroy 
them. . . . That which comforts must be accepted 
as true.'' Religion takes hold of one's being, and the 
person who follows the lead is religious in that degree. 
If something, maybe some thought, keeps coming to 
us repeatedly until we take notice of it, the unconscious 
self is pulling at the heart-strings for some purpose to 
benej&t us. Follow its lead, and that is simple but pure 
religion. If one does not follow the lead tendered, or 
perhaps willfully puts it aside, then there is some reason 
for that condition ; but judging, as I have learned to 
judge through the reasoning-out of laws, one who does 
such a thing has by that very act chosen to walk on a 
low plane — but there is a purpose in it. 



January 22, 1912. 

What is the A B C of Christianitj^? This question 
represents doctrine, and requires some thought to get 
right at the kernel, but the effort to get down to the 
bed-rock is worth while. Too many people go on, as 
we saj% ^^With their heads in the clouds'' — in which 
case their feet are sure to be in the clay. 

The underconscious self has wilHngly admitted that 
Christianity is the best thing on earth, but in its 
simplest form we see that it cannot be identical with 
reUgion. Philosophically, religion may be theistic or 
ANTi-THEiSTic. As to the characterizatious, religion 
may be either one of many, as animism, ploytheism, 
nomistic religion, individualistic religion, etc. Of the 
latter class are Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and 
Christianity. 

One of the first requisites, or an essential to the 
answer of our question, is the behef in one God. In 
this respect it is no different from Judaism, but of course 
differs at the beginning on the point of the divinity of 
Christ. Before a thing can be said properly to belong 
to rehgion it must at least be sacred to the heart. So 
in the final analysis one would not have to beheve in 
the divinity of Christ to be a Christian, for the reason 
that the element of sacredness may be attached through 
His precepts ; i. e., what He gave us must have come 
from God, therefore in a kind of nomistic sense He 

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MIDNIGHT REVERIE 43 

would be sacred to the heart. Then there is the 
question as to whether Christ, himself, meant to teach 
that He came from God in a manner different from that 
in which we, ourselves, came from God. That was 
quite a common thing in those days, when some 
especially influential person wished to be held in extra- 
ordinary esteem. Greek history is. full of it. Alex- 
ander, while in Egypt, about 332 B. C., wished to 
impress the superstitious barbarians that he was of 
celestial descent, so visited the oracle of Zeus Ammon, 
located out on the Libyan desert, and made known to 
the priest what he wanted. It was forthcoming, for 
the priest gave out that the oracle pronounced Alex- 
ander the son of Zeus Ammon. I have always won- 
dered what it cost Alexander to get that word pro- 
claimed abroad. 

Still, it is not a difficult matter to believe in the 
divinity of Christ, especially when we contemplate the 
wonderful change that has come over the inhabitants 
of the earth since Christ. That is one of the most 
powerful facts, yet we have men whose names have 
gone down in history and illuminated its pages with 
deeds and precepts approximating those of Christ : 
viz., the Greek sage, Socrates. Probably the greatest 
difference between Christ and Socrates lay in the lineal 
purity of heart of their respective ancestry. Christ 
had a grasp of the affairs of humanity and the laws of 
activity which has never been equaled, but it has been 
the law of faith that has worked the wonders on this 
mundane sphere of ours. So we come at once to the 



44 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

next essential, \iz., faith. Without faith we can in no 
wise be Chi'istians. It is necessarj' that our faith 
have some definite object upon which to rest, other- 
wise it is too etherial to affect matter. Christ has been 
that rest down through the ages, and is today, — all 
properly enough, but in tliis age there is no need of 
Judaism, ^Mohammedanism, Buddliism. etc., for the 
whole world can unite on Chiist whether He is believed 
to be divine or not. Do you ask what will hold the 
faith if we quibble over His cU^inity ? Are His precepts 
not enough if taken in connection with the miraculous 
change which has come over the people in consequence 
of those simple truths? Can you doubt that they come 
from God? If you do. then you are none of His. 
Everything that we call best came from the Great 
Spirit in truth. Therein lies the sacredness of Christ, 
for He gave his life rather than sm'render one principle 
for which He stood, whereby the succeeding genera- 
tions have been so bountifully blest. T\Tiat is the A B C 
of Christianity, then'? It is faith in God through the 
precepts of Christ. 



January 23, 1912. 

What is remission of sins? Here is a bothersome sort 
of thing which I have endeavored to get some satis- 
faction on, hence asked underconscious self about it 
one night, hoping that he would be interested enough to 
hand up an answer. Well, I got it, but, like the 
prophets of old, it was not in definite terms ; it seems 
that nature does not move that way. We human be- 
ings get the notion that everything should be reduced 
to a mathematical certainty before it can be relied on, 
but it certainly is not so with nature. The benefits 
which flow for mankind are more like the mighty ocean. 
Would it be possible to fence off a little piece of that 
and claim it for one's own? No ; it is for all humanity, 
serving one and all under the same laws. In this way 
we cannot hope to fathom all parts of all that which is 
interesting to us. 

Taken in connection with my query, the following 
has significance : It seemed that I had been given 
charge of a little child for a time ; that we were to pass 
that time in a labyrinth, a rude sort of thing with doors 
and gates galore. It seemed that the mother of the 
child, a pretty little girl of three or four years of age, 
had an understanding of the place to which we were 
going, and had said, ^^Do not go above the mud 
flushes,'' but it was all new to me. Well, of all times 
we had getting through that maze! It came to me 

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46 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

that there was not a great difference between that child 
and myself, after all. Here is a way that is sure to be 
what we want, and through the door we would go ; 
then we would recognize some object that seemed 
familiar enough, but for some unaccountable reason 
the door, which should be open, was shut. l^Miile in 
this quandary, here came a deluge of mud; and we 
both laughed, for the child had understood, as well as 
I, what her mother had said. There we were, and our 
pathway covered ^\'ith mud. Wade it? — of course we 
did ; 2. e., I waded it, and carried the child for fear she 
might soil the pretty white dress which she wore. Be- 
fore we had gone far it was apparent that the mother 
would know that we went past the ''mud flushes/' for 
try as I would to prevent it, there v\-ould be splashes 
of mud flying and the}' were sure to find a place on the 
child's clothes. If the mud was not thin, it was thick 
enough to pull off my overshoes just about half-way 
across, so that if there were no splashes, there would be 
daubs. Finally I set my head to get out. We got 
out, but were well tired out, — and disgusted, too. 

How does that rank with Pharaoh's dream? Dreams 
are a wonder, say what we will about the dominant idea. 
I feel this to be true : my underconscious self, whatever 
may be his business otherwise, will impress my con- 
scious thoughts T\'ith that which will benefit me if I 
follow the lead. 

I remember that I was disgusted with the outcome 
of something in which I was interested, and had really 
thought that it would end as I was hoping. Surely I 



MIDNIGHT REVEEIE 47 

had been misled, and felt a deep chagrin. I put in my 
complaints and asked how it was that I had been led 
to believe the opposite from what the outcome of the 
affair proved. The answer came quickly : ^^ Take your 
will out of it.'^ Do you wonder how I could get that 
impression? Well, it seems simple enough when that 
was the very next thought that came to my mind. 
There may be many things yet, to puzzle the greatest 
of philosophers. 

Judging from the above, which I have told as ac- 
curately as I am able, it seems to me that the phrase 
^^ remission of sins'' depends upon our instructions re- 
garding Adam and Eve, the fall, etc., for its logical 
connection. How could we ever know of such a thing 
as 'Hhe fair' only as we were instructed? If sin is a 
transgression of the law, it is conclusive that a knowl- 
edge of the law has to precede the act before it can be 
binding on the conscience. We might do that which 
is against some law of the land, not knowing the law, 
but in conscience there can be no wrong. We might 
have to suffer for it under our imperfect administration 
of human laws, but with a just and all-wise God, can 
anyone conceive of an act being judged as sin, whereas 
the very knowledge which makes sin possible is want- 
ing? 



January 23, 1912. 
My underconscious self has received impressions, and 
whether he works them over or not, they are evidently 
used again. Is it unreasonable to suppose that the 
underconscious mind has its train of thought, reasons, 
judges and arrives at conclusions in like manner as the 
conscious? Being unaffected by ph3^sical conditions, 
does it not seem fair to suggest that the conclusions 
reached thereby will be deeper, more penetrating, and 
more logical than those of the conscious mind? What 
difference would the name of the thing make? If the 
manifestations which affect me are such that I am con- 
vinced that I am made with a conscious and an un- 
conscious self, what is there in the name that I may give 
that condition? I am interested in facts, and will use 
such means as seem to make my meaning most clear. 
I may go on and speculate on where those impressions 
came from which I have related above ; I might even 
account for every one of them as having been pre- 
viously in my mind, but they certainly never were in 
mind in the connection as related this time, nor were 
the same thoughts arranged in like manner before, 
during any conscious period as I remember. The del- 
uge of mud, I remember, was an expression which the 
Ghost Dance Indians, under the leadership of Short 
Bull, made use of in contemplating their Messiah. The 
caution given bj^ the mother might be analogous to the 

(48) 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 49 

''forbidden fruit''; also my own little girl, who is 
about that age, might account for that part of the 
dream, etc., but this fact is clear : taken as a whole, the 
impressions recounted were never in the mind in just 
that way before. The under conscious self has worked 
them over and made a new thing, which is a wonder, 
connected as it is with the question that bothered my 
mind immediately, as near as I can recall, before fall- 
ing to sleep. 

If disposed to speculate on what underconscious self 
meant in creating this new thing, there can be no other 
prompting motive for it than the fact that conscious 
self was troubled with the question we consider. In 
that light each recounted impression has significance ; 
6. g., I was in the company of a little child; she was 
immaculate. Her mother gave warning as to how far 
we should go in the maze, and while there I was im- 
pressed with the fact that as between the child and 
me there was not a great difference. Then came the 
trouble, and the impossibility of concealing the fact 
that we encountered the mud, and finally the exit. 

As we reason now, the mother evidently did not wish 
her Httle girl to be in that part of the labyrinth which 
contained the mud, so cautioned me about it ; but of 
course I had no way of knowing just how far we should 
go. The steps leading up to ''remission of sin'' as 
we have learned it are, 1st, an existing law known to the 
offending party ; 2nd, an overt act contrary to the law 
with the intent to transgress ; 3rd, the sinful condition 
to which the individual has fallen ; 4th, remission by 



50 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

Blood of Purity. On the point of the knowledge of th« 
existing law before its transgression can produce the 
sinful condition, it is hardlj^ worth mentioning that in 
nature the knowledge is not a factor. In fact, we know 
the law often by the effects of the transgression, but 
contemplating the moral question, we have been taught 
that conditions are different, viz., that we must know 
we are doing wrong before the sinful condition can at- 
tach. In follo\\1ng the logic of this matter, why is it 
necessary to set up another, and separate, criterion for 
judgment? If a thing is opposed to something else, 
whether we know it or not, why would it not be healthy 
for one to suffer agonies in his soul for following the 
course objectionable to the Author of all law? The 
fact is, unless we are taught that a thing is wrong, we 
would never know it, and would suffer no compunction 
of conscience for doing it. In the labjTinth both the 
adult and the child were equallj^ helpless ; it was a 
mere matter of guessing : so a child's guess may prove 
as good as that of the adult. Knowledge had little to 
do with it. ^^Tien we saw the mud, we knew that we 
had gone too far, but what good was that knowledge 
to us then? Our task was to get out ; so, mud or no 
mud, v/e plunged ahead. Can it be argued that I was 
wrong in going so far? The mother was evidently 
vexed at mj^ poor service, although that was no part 
of the dream — a mere scholium. There is just one 
way to judge whether it was wrong in me to go so far, 
viz., by the consequence. In that we were not as 
happy as we should have been, emerging from a lark 



MIDNIGHT KEVEBIE 51 

of this kind, it was wrong, yet the other side is equally 
important. If we have everything we may wish for in 
perfect ease, that condition thwarts the law of activity, 
resulting in death and decay. No doubt the child, so 
accustomed to perfect cleanliness, really enjoyed get- 
ting a few spots of mud on her white dress. So what 
about this ^^ remission" business? In my way of 
thinking the whole orthodox system is false, because 
nature is all that we have to base our knowledge upon, 
and that traced back to the last analysis does not sup- 
port the concocted orthodox idea. If man is in a 
state of sin, it pleased God to so place him. If the 
mother had cared enough about it she certainly would 
have taken more pains to make me know just how far 
to go in the maze, for she certainly had knowledge of the 
thing. Because she did not, she had no right to inter- 
pose any objection to the consequences. Hers was the 
superior knowledge and she is the only one really af- 
fected. The little girl and I had a good time, except we 
were sorry to be so bedaubed with mud. I especially 
was sorry, for I had charge of the child. Since under- 
conscious self did not see fit to carry out the full con- 
clusions, I am at ease about the remission of sin. 

Is it not more reasonable to teach children logically, 
from the known to the unknown? All we really know 
instinctively is the first law of nature, second law, etc. 
We should not be taught that our first duty is to love 
some other person, or that it is a sin to love ourselves. 
As we know to love and take care of ourselves, so from 
this it is an easy step to teach love for others, because 



52 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

it will most benefit us by so doing. Thus in perfect 
simplicity we make the logical start. We cannot ex- 
tricate ourselves now from the ideas which have been 
bred into vis for ages, but it is reasonable to turn to 
Nature for our teacher and gradually develop ourselves 
in accordance with her as we are made. Let us say 
that a man sins, and knows that he sins, according to 
the church, it being an overt act against the code of 
morals : is it also a sin against God? Carry it right 
back to the dream; by analogy we reason that God 
is the only one affected, since His is the superior 
knowledge. If He does not care enough about the 
consequences of that which we call sin to give special 
and specific instructions to us who are dependent, does 
not the fun of wading the mud compensate for the 
soiled clothes? You say that Christ has taught us. 
So He has ; so have others taught us what was born in 
them, too. My thought is this : If there is that in us 
that guides or rules our destiny, we have that much in 
us that is natural, — just as God wanted it to be ; so 
it has first place. Suppose that we were simple children 
of nature, with the ages of accumulated knowledge to 
benefit us : who knows but what we would be able to 
manipulate the laws, or rather throw ourselves in the 
way of the laws, so as to command that we may? Does 
it really help us to regard that we are naturally under a 
burden of sin and have to be redeemed before there is 
any salvation for us? It seems to me that if we could 
get the thought that we are as God wished us to be, 
then follow the lead of that which was implanted within 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 53 

UB, our lives would be purer, less rebellious, and we 
would be better able to develop our full powers. 

What is remission of sin, then? It is some notion 
that got into the head of some savage ancestor of ours, 
which made us all sinners ; then it was necessary to 
have some redeeming feature. Finally, the sacrifice on 
the cross was construed in accordance with that savage 
notion. It may be necessary for those who think that 
way, but to those who study themselves and follow the 
lead of nature, it seems useless. 



January 30, 1912. 

How does faith operate? This question adequately 
answered would link heaven and earth together : so 
it seems too much to expect that. I have long wanted 
to know about this thing of faith, for it appeals to me as 
a student. Christ used it in every instance of healing, 
perhaps, if it were reported correctly by the gospel 
writers. By the use of faith one is linked to a power 
strong enough to do anything; nor will it be super- 
natural. It will be the most natural of all things when 
understood. 

Now this question was submitted to under conscious 
self one dead hour of night when sleep was no longer 
interesting in view of the fact that such a thing as this 
could be considered. What do you suppose this 
negative self of mine suggested? Well, he evidently 
was bothered, for in one corner of the mental vision he 
pictured a big spider sitting in the middle of his web, 
but to my surprise he quickly withdrew his picture and 
nothing more was suggested. But I will keep at him 
until I find out something, if he knows or is able to 
ascertain any facts connected with the question. It is 
up to him now. 

While he is working on it, let us pass to a discussion 
of faith. In Heb. ii: 1 Paul says that ^^ Faith is the 
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things 
not seen." A lexicographer writes: ^^ Faith is a firm 

(54) 



MIDNIGHT KEVERIE 55 

conviction of the truth of what is declared by another. 
by way either of testimony or authority, without other 
evidence. Theol: The assent of the mind or under- 
standing to the truth of what God has revealed. A 
divinely wrought, loving and hearty reliance upon 
God/' There are many words which have a related 
meaning to that of fait ^ as belief, trust, conviction, 
assurance, etc., but a close study of the words shows 
that faith is the one word we need to understand; 
e. g., Sj doctrine is a belief, or the statement of it, regard- 
ing some point. Trust is a confident reliance or prac- 
tical resting of the mind on the integrity of another 
person. Conviction is a belief established by some 
argument or evidence, but assurance is a belief beyond 
the reach of argument. We have a calm reliance upon 
the uniformity of nature, but we have faith in God. 
Faith is a union of belief and trust. Faith must be 
personal, but belief may be impersonal. 

Then faith is a peculiar mental condition which 
Unks man with his Maker. It is in contemplation of 
the higher emotions that faith carries its greatest 
weight. The mind or soul is capable of numerous 
emotions, all of which belong to the sensibilities, but 
the highest feelings of reverence for and a dependence 
on a Supreme Being is the crowning capacity of the 
human soul. Some one has called faith ^Hhe anchor of 
the soul.'' According to the law of activity, or its 
counterpart, decay, the soul energizes the body, and 
its absence permits decay. I believe that it is Emerson 
who says being has no counterpart ; i. e., we cannot 



56 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

conceive of it. If this is so, then being is not the re- 
sultant, but the essence, of that which is. But we are 
so accustomed to the law of opposites that by analogy 
we reason that the first principle of all being (God) is 
also subject to the same condition, for, being an intel- 
Ugence, how could He know to form all that is, each 
with its counterpart, in the way we see and reason 
that all things are, were He otherwise constituted? 
Then the Supreme Being is a binary existence. 

The above is a demonstration of reasoning and form- 
ing judgment. Reason and Judgment are two parts 
of the intellect, but the soul is more, including, as it 
does, the feelings and the will. Faith is a condition of 
rest. In our innumerable activities involving our 
moral obligations and our sense of duty, we often be- 
come confused — our intellectual strength is too weak 
to set our minds at rest. It was not meant to do so, 
because faith is an element of mind. Herein lies the 
wisdom of the Christ. He is personal, and our faith 
can rest in that we know. There is a subtle power 
underlying this condition of mind of which we know 
but little, though accepting the gospel writers' state- 
ments as true, Christ made constant use of it. 



January 31, 1912. 

Since writing the last sentence above, I slept ; but 
as usual, there was a part of the night that sleep was 
not so interesting as thinking on the question. It was 
up to underconscious self to act, and he did, — but is 
there ^^ anything new under the sun''? 

I can understand what John meant when he said : 
^^I was in the spirit on the Lord's day.'' I was ^'in the 
spirit" last night. Do you know what is meant by 
the expression? It is a personal experience, and rather 
difficult to describe, though an attempt should be made 
to do so. My nature is such that if I am engaged in 
doing a thing, I am ^^into it all over," as we say. Last 
night I persisted until the answer came. It seemed 
that there was a hovering over me of some spiritual 
being, and an inpouring of a stream of that which I 
felt about me. It seemed that faith was being sup- 
phed me, for the hovering seemed to be about the head 
in particular, and the inflowing stream passed to the 
mind without any sense of fullness whatsoever. I 
certainly was in the spirit and the spirit was flowing 
into me, as strange as these words sound. But after it 
was finished, though prolonged to some extent, — which 
would have been greater only for my eagerness to get 
at the kernel of what I sought, — I came to a realiza- 
tion of the fact th^t nothing new in particular was pre- 
sented. 

(57) 



58 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 



The question as to how faith operates was ever press- 
ing from my conscious mind, and answers would come 
in various forms : e. g., sl hint of the spider was again 
in evidence ; then I would be impressed with the sense 
of that which I sought being a part of myself. Trying 
to get right at the essence, the question would press 
forward again, and answer came in this fashion : That 
(faith) is a seed, so to speak, given each individual, but 
its food and nourishment must come from above. The 
location of the seed determines the manner of growth, 
hence an adequate growth depends upon the soil in 
which is the germ. Fighting around this way for some 
time, the impression was very clear as expressed in 1st 
Cor. xiii : 1-4, ^. 6., Love is that which one must have 
to make good use of faith. It did not appear absolutely 
necessary, but bordered on the fact that unless love is 
strong in the individual, there may be danger in the 
application of the law of faith. As a final fact, under- 
conscious self put it right back to me that it is not 
possible to tell me something which I cannot understand 
without adequate growth in the particular line of 
inquiry. 

What do I understand by this? Well, it seems 
perfectly clear now that our race has lost many op- 
portunities to advance to a higher plane. My an- 
cestors were so hedged in by material things that they 
could not give enough time to developing that which 
I seek now. I, myself, am therefore short. It be- 
hooves me to study more of those things which lead 
to higher planes of activity, and thus teach my children. 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 59 

Is it any wonder that the Great Teacher used parables? 
'^Having ears, but hear not ; eyes, but perceive not/' 
He had a grasp of the reahties of Hfe, which has caused 
his name and his words to Hve in succeeding genera- 
tions down through the ages with a vigor more marvel- 
ous than the truths he taught. There is just one way 
to explain this, viz. : Abraham was given a vision for 
the particular purpose of ultimately producing the 
Christ, which it did. We are not so different from 
Abraham in this particular, for if we follow that which 
is born a part of us, we are sure to advance in accord- 
ance with the law of evolution. 

Henceforth I shall watch the spider with renewed 
interests, because it is presented in this peculiar con- 
nection. Who knows whether the spider does not 
obtain his food purely through the operation of the 
law of faith? He spins his web in places where flies 
are likely to come ; instinct evidently tells him to do 
this. Then he sits and watches, or remains near by, 
so as to capture his prey. God has to feed the spider if 
He wishes to use him, hence underconscious self prob- 
ably knew what he was doing. 



February 1. 1912. 

\Vhat is the devil? We hear so much about this 
force that it seems fitting to ask underconscious self 
what it is. This fact impresses one who studies a 
little about such things, viz. : Children and unedu- 
cated persons, negi^oes. Indians, Chinamen, etc.. have 
a dread of the e\il force, so called. Just yesterday our 
little girl afforded proof of that uncertainty felt by 
children, which causes them to be afraid in the dark. 
Her mother had asked her to go to the cellar for 
potatoes, which she had often done before, but this 
time for some reason she did not want to go. Her 
mother coaxed her some, and she started. The cellar 
is quite dark, especially in that part of it where the 
potatoes are. There was a noticeable delay in the 
cellar. Soon a little voice was heard: "Mother, I'm 
afraid." " Go on, you child, as you have so many times 
before." "T don't want to. . . . Something looks.'' 

For some reason we were created with that uncer- 
tainty about us. It is the same force in us that causes 
us to worship, and it seems to me that if we ever get 
past that condition of mind which causes us to shrink 
back from the uncertainties of hfe and death, it is then 
our faith will be perfect, TMio can tell what powers 
will be at our command when this condition prevails'? 
Could we walk on the water '? It is reported that Christ 
did so. Could we raise the dead'!^ That is likewise 

(80) 



MIDNIGHT KEVERIE 61 

recorded of the Christ. I feel sure that He did won- 
ders, whether everything is reported correctly or not ; 
and if He did so, it was through the operation of 
natural laws that he accomplished what are termed 
miracles. We have this assurance : that these same 
laws will operate again when the same conditions again 
prevail. Otherwise we would have no reliance on 
nature ; in other words, God would be guilty of lying 
to man. 

There is a deep-set principle in man that causes him 
to want to move on — to progress, to set opposition at 
naught, to conquer ; but here is the counterpart to that 
force — the fear, the dread, the devil ahead, which holds 
the check ; so what we really have is the resultant of 
opposing forces, — true to the first principle of things. 

Can we dispose of the devil, then? If we can do 
that, what about hell, the opposite of heaven? Well, I 
have the assurance that the view which I have held for 
years is correct, viz. : that duality of the first principle 
of being gives rise to all we call evil. It is a mere 
negative condition, as necessary to existence as the 
positive, and no more to be hated. What will some of 
the reverend gentlemen think of that? Too bad, 
brethren, but the logic will force you to be honest. 

Then hell: is there no hell? If there is a heaven, 
then hell may be a kind of mirage of it. We read in 
Barbara's History : ^^ Instead of home, she has chosen 
society ; instead of love, the admiration or envy of a 
careless world ; instead of Paradise, the mirage of the 
desert/' That Enghsh author has certainly softened 



62 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

the common expression, but it is not to be discarded, for 
there are those who still profit by its harshness. We 
have to remember that minds differ in their power. 
Some people have to fear something, to hold them in 
check. In children we notice more particularly the 
inclination of the adults, for ^^We are all children of 
larger growth. '\ Some boys and girls really need 
corporal punishment in order to appeal to their under- 
standing. To get yet lower in the scale of life : a mule 
differs from a horse. That which will appeal to the 
horse and cause him to do one^s bidding, will often 
fail with the mule ; but the mule can understand the 
force of a ^^ mule-skinner.^' Often he has to be ap- 
pealed to in that way before he is able to appreciate 
one's efforts. Boys and girls also differ in their men- 
tality, likewise men and women. So, if there are those 
who need to feel a fear of hell, let it be so. It is a 
reality to such persons, and serves a good purpose. 
The devil also may be needed ; so let us not kill him 
right here. In tracing out our own history of civili- 
zation, let us remember that others who follow, need 
the same evolutional steps to maintain their equi- 
librium. 



February 2, 1912. 

What about laws? It seems that the laws have 
troubled more people than anything else, and I suppose 
there are quite a few persons who would gladly do away 
with laws, were it left to them. But we have laws just 
the same — laws of two kinds, viz., natural laws and 
human laws. 

The natural laws are those which God, Himself, 
established for the orderly activity of all creation. 
Human laws are those which man has established, 
looking to the same orderly conduct of mankind. Do 
these laws overlap? It seems to me that they do not ; 
that they aie both clear-cut and well defined. When 
they seem to overlap, it is because some man has tried 
to usurp the authority of God; e. g., Moses on Mt. 
Sinai. Understand me that 1 am not saying one word 
against the Decalogue, but wish to suggest that Moses 
had to do something like this to control the ^^stiff- 
necked'' people through their superstitious fears. It 
had to be so, for they were a free people now — they 
were a law unto themselves, and Moses was ^^up 
against it," as we say. In this day, as well as in 
Moses' time, there is alv/ays a way out of difficulty if we 
turn to the right and ground our faith. A good founda- 
tion is essential in almost anything, and it does appear 
that truth is the foundation upon which faith is built. 
Founded on truth, faith has something to push against. 

(63) 



64 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

Truth is the positive, lie the negative thing, yet it 
occurs so that the negative sometimes takes the lead 
and benefits flow to bless mankind in a sort of reverse 
current. When the last has been said, this truth re- 
mains : Activity amid the opposing forces is estab- 
lished of God ; man is born to advance, to conquer, so 
that which is allowed to predominate and rule activity 
is for a purpose in the great economy of the universe. 
You and I are not responsible for even our own ex- 
istence, hence the influence we exert has to fit into the 
divine plan, otherwise the whole thing is a failure. If 
one man steps aside to reflect a sort of negative con- 
dition, he cannot hope to evade the established laws 
which, by that act, are brought to bear upon him ; so 
what we have in this world of ours is the resultant of 
opposing forces. That is the ''middle way,'' or rather 
the average between the two extremes. To go a step 
further and brace up the proposition : you and I are 
not ultimately responsible for our own lives, because 
we are instruments, so created and predestined. If I 
am supreme even in one thing, then God has to bend 
to that. It is true that I have a greater range of 
activity than the flower, yet I have my limitations pre- 
scribed just as the flower has. That which is in 
existence is for a purpose, but we are not the masters. 
We play our little parts and think that we are ''it," 
but when we view things aright it appears that our 
true status is that of a servant. If we are true to that 
which is born in us, certain conditions follow; if we 
are false to ourselves, those negative conditions bring 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 65 

US under a different environment. In that way we 
have a choice, but our choice cannot affect things be- 
yond certain limitations. Does that reasoning bother 
you? Are you disposed to say, ^^Well, if it makes no 
difference how I act, what is the use to try to be good?'^ 
If this affects you thus, one thing is certain : it was 
meant to be so from the beginning, so you are ^^up 
against it.'^ Whether you use the positive or the 
negative, you cannot upset the Divine plan; but if 
you wish to be the true servant, the means you employ 
will lead you to enjoy that which is in store for the 
faithful after the evolutionary steps have been rounded 
out. Nor will we have to wait for the hereafter to 
enjoy our estate, for there are way-posts to mark out 
and balance our accounts on the journey. By using 
the negative, all we can say for you is, that you make 
it possible for others to profit by what they see you 
reaping to your great discomfort, thus avoid you in 
your status of being a ^^ vessel of dishonor.'' What the 
future status may be for such as employ the negative 
instead of the positive force, God alone can answer 
you, — and He may, if you ask Him. 



February 2, 1912. 

Law, then, is an established thing by which all mind 
as well as matter is ruled. There is this difference 
between Divine laws and human laws : Transgression 
of a Divine law^ is sure to place one under the ban of the 
Creator, but a transgression of a human law simply 
puts one under the ban of society. Society is certain 
to exact punishment, if it feels that the transgression 
by its enormity endangers itself. We are apt to grow 
lax, knowing our own weaknesses, when it is up to us 
to punish a brother, but can we conceive of a just God 
being lax if we do that which places us under the ban of 
our Creator? 

Following out the logic of our own being, we are 
taught by the effects of that which is bad for us, so we 
need not err to any great extent. If an onion hurts my 
stomach, do I need to eat an onion? If being angry 
with a brother reacts upon me in a harmful way, do I 
need to be angry with him? If we transgress a Divine 
Law, not knowing, the effects will be the same ; so 
when we have progressed far enough to discover our 
mistake, it can be corrected. Our trouble is that we 
regard human laws Divine, if they haply are found in 
the Bible. We teach our children that those things 
are Divine, but the fact is their transgression may not 
be attended with Divine disfavor at all ; so the only 
adequate conclusion is that they are not Divine. For 

(66) 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 67 

this reason, that which is termed sin may not be sin at 
all in the sight of God. It is sin only as some priest, or 
the like, has made it so. 

Right down on bed-rock again, how are we to know 
what is Divine? Go to your own conscience, if it has 
not been distorted too much, and search out what is in 
you. That is Divine ; it pleased God or He would not 
have made you so, nor permitted the environments 
that perchance determined it. If one feels not to be 
able to get Divine bearings upon himself, go to Mother 
Nature for a cure of those ills. The lonely mountains, 
the far-off plains, the wide ocean, — anywhere to get 
away from so much man. These will give one his true 
bearings, thus enable him to get back to the funda- 
mental things in life. 

When we get at ourselves we will be surprised to 
find how few are the laws which our Creator has es- 
tabhshed for our well-being. Suppose we write out a 
few : 
We call God the first Opposite or opposing 

principle. forces constitute the 

first law of nature. 
Activity is the second. Self-preservation is prob- 

ably second. 
Resultants, or effects, fol- Continuation of species, 

low. or family relations, is 

another. 

Then man's relations with God, which grow out of 
his ability to reason, and his inborn sense of duty, 
beget fundamental conditions of truth and faith. We 



68 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

do not have to go back to the Old Testament to dis- 
cover that man once had communication with God ; 
but on the other hand, anyone who tries it on himself 
will find that which gives answer in proportion as he 
is in earnest. The purer the life, the less hampered it 
is ; the deeper truth is rooted in the soul, the more 
faith one has, consequently the more power. The 
Bible is evidence of the truth I am writing, but super- 
stitions had the upper hand in those days, so the 
writings are more or less clouded. The truths con- 
tained in the Bible are evidently handed down to us 
from the purest source in all the universe. If God, 
Himself, does not speak in our hearts. He has made it 
possible to communicate with some underconscious 
mind that does. So it amounts to the same thing. 

What about law, then? Each man is a law unto 
himself, if he is true to himself and his God ; if he is 
not, he will find that society has found it expedient 
to protect itself against such as he, though his activities 
may or may not place him under the ban of the Creator. 
However, I cannot conceive of the Creator feeling the 
necessity of protecting Himself against any such weak 
force as man is able to exert. On the other hand, those 
Avho are conscious of using the negative rather than the 
positive force can be sure there is a purpose in it. 



February 3, 1912. 

What is truth? Does it appear that this word is 
synonymous with rightf Right and wrong are relative 
terms, but truth is everlasting. A few years back it 
was right in Salem to arrest and prosecute witches, but 
we would hardly say that it is right to do that sort of 
thing today. Do you say that it was not right then 
any more than now? There were plenty of those good 
people there who did say that it was right at that 
time. Oh, they were deluded, were they? What 
are you going to do about slavery and other great evils 
of the past, if we may call them evils, which practically 
the whole known world regarded as right? Right is 
the best we know, but truth is everlasting. 

The human race has been discovering and stating 
truths down through the ages, and they are truths 
today. Take the mathematical truths, for example. 
EucUd^s geometry, compiled away back 300 B. C, con- 
tained the fundamental principles of our own geom- 
etries of today. So it is in all lines : when we discover 
a truth it shines like gold and tarnishes not by age. 
How is it with a lie? It seems to me that we have the 
negative condition of fact for no other reason than to 
teach us truth ; that certainly is the main purpose of 
the He, at best, jyioses had the Ten Commandments 
on those two tables of stone, and his work was to get 
his people to accept them. His faith evidently was not 

(69) 



70 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

very strong, for he feared that they would not do it ; 
so he tells them that God wrote those Ten Command- 
ments with his own hand on these two stone tablets. 
Now, Moses evidently switched in on the negative, 
to make sure that thing would be ^' a go/' It went, so 
today we have the Decalogue to bless humanity ; but 
other races had it before, though not in our arrange- 
ment or order, as we discover now. To become a real 
''black lie,'' there must be the intent connected with 
the act ; so it may be that the circumstances connected 
with Moses on Mt. Sinai would excuse him, if we knew. 
He might have been beside himself, or in such a condi- 
tion mentally that he really thought as he reported ; it 
is not ours, then, to judge. There are those, many 
such today, who regard it right to do a small wrong 
to make it possible to accomplish a great right; so 
we progress, in our weak way, on and on. Both con- 
ditions are ours to utilize as best we can, battling with 
the forces with which we have to contend. Indi- 
vidually we may go on the back track, but collectively 
it is an impossibility, because it is not God's ordained 
purpose that we should. 

Do you ask, then, what is truth? ''Ye shall know 
the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 
viii : 32. (I've marked the passage in the old Bible 
which my mother gave to me, thus: "Rev. Poling, 
Independence, Oreg., April 24, 1892.") You do not 
suppose that God gave an independent mind to each 
individual all to no purpose? You do not suppose that 
growth is possible unless we use the powers given us, 



MIDNIGHT ERVEBIE 71 

do you? Then if you are after truth, do not delegate 
your powers to some one else, but take the best book of 
all ages, the Bible. (We know it is best, for it has out- 
worn any and all the others, and it lives with a vigor 
quite promising, indeed.) Now, open it at some page 
and read. It does not make any difference where that 
is, for the sake of trial, but ^^do it now.'' Does the 
thought you get jar on your senses? Do you say 
^^That is not truth''? Well, friend, it may not be 
truth. If it be truth, then you are in the negative 
state. But go on — turn to another place and read. 
Does that likewise jar you? That may be wrong, as 
we say, or you may not be in tune. But go on — persist 
until you find what agrees with your sense of propriety, 
and I am sure you will call that truth. In all prob- 
ability it is truth ; yet there is chance for error, for your 
conscience may have slacked its tension just enough 
to throw you off, as a piano sometimes gets out of tune. 
However, if earnestness characterizes your efforts, do 
not be afraid of a little discordant activity. One 
piano-tuner may have a better ear than another, and 
thus get a better grade of music from an instrument ; 
but any of them improve by practice. 



Febkuary 4, 1912. 

Between the time I began to write down my thoughts 
on the question : ^^ What is truth?^' I slept. The rest 
was invigorating t^ my frame, but at an early hour this 
morning my eyes were wide open and conscious thought 
surged through my soul. I asked, ^'What is truth?'' 
The answer came about as I have now indicated, but 
there is yet this thought : You cannot get away from 
the truth, if in your heart you want to know ^^ What is 
truth?'' The established laws are such that the means 
which you employ will lead you on and on until the 
real truth will be so well established that the law of 
faith will make it possible for further progress ; there 
is no limit then, for you are in accord with the positive 
force which rules the universe. You are linked to a 
powder strong enough to do anything — even establish 
new laws, if need be. What is there to fear, if we are 
true to that which is born in us? The whole warp and 
woof of being seems so clear to me that I wonder why I 
cannot use my own powders to greater purpose; yet 
reason tells me that I have not gained enough strength 
in this line, because of the non-use of those forces. 

Did this principle in nature ever impress you special- 
ly, viz. : A farmer expects to reap more than he sows. 
One grain of wheat has the power under favorable con- 
ditions to produce a hundred grains and more. Weeds 
far outstrip that record. I remember once of having 

(72) 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 73 

estimated the number of weed seeds of a certain species 
that were produced from a single germination. I wish 
that I had kept the record, for I do not remember the 
figures, but this species on which I made the estimate 
produced its seeds in pods ; each pod contained a dozen 
or more seeds, and there were scores upon scores of 
those pods,— but it was a good year for weeds ; how- 
ever, that weed grew in the pasture. In every case of 
reproduction in nature there is that power of multi- 
plying. It is noticed in the muscular force of the 
athletes. The blacksmith by constant tearing away of 
the cells of his biceps muscles is blessed by a reproduc- 
tion of more and better ones than he destroyed by use. 
Then are we not to draw the conclusion that the same 
law holds good when we get in the realm of thought and 
soul activity? The way is clear: ^^Go and possess 
the land.'' 

Here is another thought that came in on the heels of 
the pressing question : Our lives may be likened to 
water, which is capable of infinitesimal division as the 
forces of nature draw upon it. It will yield but to 
bless, then it will gravitate and flow on and on until it 
joins the mighty ocean. Its particles fit perfectly into 
all others of its kind ; so in perfect harmony the rills 
join forces with the brooks, the brooks with the rivers, 
which accumulate mighty power as they flow on in 
their course to join the sea, where is force beyond our 
powers of comprehension. Lives that are in accord 
with truth seem to me to be like that, as the quantity 
may be variable in different individuals ; yet in perfect 



74 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

accord they present a power mighty indeed, though but 
a mere drop in comparison with that of the Great Spirit 
toward which we continually gravitate. Our way may 
seem hard and difficult to bear, but it is because we are 
not in accord with truth. We may be in a cloud which 
is charged with negative electricity, for that matter — 
our substance may be rarefied until it may seem that 
we have all but lost our identity ; but there is a gracious 
law that rules even the clouds, because sooner or later 
they will meet conditions which cause them to gravitate 
and join forces and issue forth in '^showers of blessing.'' 
In our negative condition it may require the proximity 
of clouds charged with positive electricity before we 
can yield to bless with the identity which is all but 
lost. It is then that we see the manifestations of the 
power of God through His laws — the mighty lightning 
leaps and the thunder rolls. Is it any wonder the poor 
ignorant Israelites, not understanding the forces of 
nature, shrank back in terror as Mt. Sinai before their 
very eyes gave forth such manifestations, enshrouded 
as it was, no doubt, with a storm-cloud? Let us be 
honest in our search for truth or the very fact of our 
negative condition will shut us out from it. 



February 8, 1912. 

What about types? If we have types of heaven here 
on earth, it is certainly worth a httle effort to ascertain 
the fact, if possible. Absolute certainties regarding 
the hereafter are not for man to know, yet by tracing 
out the logic of our being and the dynamics of creation 
we are able to arrive at conclusions which warrant 
serious consideration, at least. By tabulating a few 
facts known of life and death here, there remains an 
obvious conclusion to be drawn : 



LIFE AND DEATH CHART. 



Creation. One Purpose. 

Plants live and produce seeds (eggs). 
Insects " " " eggs. 

Animals " " " ** 

Man lives and produces '* 



Result. 



dormant life. 



x>T »,.Tma A\r. 5 (<^) To aid Wgher forms of life. c?^ « a- J 

Plants die. . | \^^ g^^^ g^ g^^j^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ Seeds die 



Insects die 



5 (a) To aid higher forms of life. 

\ (6) Some go back to mother earth. 



AwTMAT* Hif. i ^*) "^^ *^^ higher forms of life. 
ANIMALS aie. -^ ^^^ g^jj^g g^j ^^^jj ^^ mother earth. 



(a) To produce life. 
(6) To aid higher life, 
(c) Some go back to 

mother earth, 
(a) To give life. 
(6) To aid higher 

forms of life, 
(c) Some go back to 

mother earth, 
(o) To give life. 
(6) To aid higher 

forms of life, 
(c) Some go back to 

mother earth, 
(a) To give life. 
(6) Some go back to 

mother earth. 

As soon as we pass from the inorganic to the organic 
world of creation, we meet God right at the entrance. 
Life came from hiin. In our search for causes we can- 
not go back of Him, and we have to ascribe some pur- 

(75) 



Man dies.... I fe) 



Eggs die 



Eqqs die 



Eggs die - 



76 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

pose to His creation. In tracing this purpose from the 
lowest forms up to the highest, we see that one purpose 
is to reproduce and to serve higher forms of existence ; 
i. e.j a plant exists to reproduce itself, but the work of 
the plant during its life is stored up in this dormant 
form according to the laws — that of multiplicity, giv- 
ing a great plenty — and higher forms of life prey upon 
the product of the plant. Insects are no exception, 
yet their methods differ. They live to produce eggs, as 
do animals and man. The eggs of mammals, of course^ 
differ from those of the lower forms, yet the principle 
is the same, but in the result or purpose (6 above) we 
have the same condition under the heading '^animals,'' 
including mammals, as exists under the next heading, 
man. 

To maintain the man, God begins with the plant as 
the first form of life, then on this foundation builds the 
rest of creation. We can see the purpose of the lower 
forms, which must be types of the higher. When there 
is so much in common through life and death of God's 
creatures, is it reasonable to suppose that the death 
of man ends his usefulness? Is it not more reasonable 
to suppose that the death of man aids higher forms of 
life too? It is so with the plant and its egg, the insect 
and its egg, the animal and its egg — each in turn gives 
to the sustenance of some higher form of life. Of the 
highest course we do not know anything about the 
higher form of the highest known to us — but we have 
some beautiful types from which to draw our conclu- 
sions. 



February 8, 1912. 

It is noticeable in the insect creation that between the 
egg form and the imago there is an intermediate state ; 
e. g.j the butterfly produces eggs, but those eggs produce 
caterpillars, which in turn produce butterflies. Mos- 
quitoes likewise produce eggs, which in turn produce 
wigglers, which by metamorphosis become mosquitoes. 
In the seed the period of gestation, we may say is in- 
definite ; in the insect, prolonged ; in the animal, 
shortened; in man, definite; the range is from in- 
definite to definite, always with an intermediate state. 
What can these facts typify? Since it crops out in the 
insect creation that there is a preparatory state before 
the imago, then the period of gestation shortens down 
to definite time, — we take this as a type of the higher 
creation. 

Some one has called man ^'a mere egg rolUng around 
in a haymow," but it is evident that we have passed the 
egg state ; however, reason tells us that we have not 
passed the intermediate state — the state of preparation 
which always precedes the final and perfect state of 
being. 

My thoughts have troubled me considerably on this 
subject, so as usual, I presented the matter to the 
under conscious mind for help. What do you suppose 
that I got out of him? I owe it as a duty to write it 
down : the answer came in this order : Earth is typical 

(77) 



78 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

of mother, the sun the father, and water typifies life 
itself. Is there anj'thing new in that? I read some- 
where that water is the type of instabihty, but that does 
no ^iolence to hfe ; for what could be more unstable 
than life itself? It is fleeting, dwelhng here today, 
some other place tomorrow, — we know not the day of 
the end thereof, but this we know : we are ser^dng a 
purpose in this state of our being, the acti\ities of 
which are unceasing — not of our own \\'ills — prepara- 
iovY, of course, to the state of perfection \\ith God to 
whom we gravitate, unless by the operation of laws, 
by reason of our range of choice, we have forfeited our 
high estate, and become, through mere negation, so 
rarefied that positive force cannot rule. Can you con- 
ceive of a caterpillar faihng to become a butterfly? 
Sure, for he may be acted on by the digestive apparatus 
of some bird. Then if we fail to arrive at the state 
of perfection, we have this satisfaction for the fact of 
our lives, ^iz., by the adversity we encountered we 
made it possible for some other one to become perfect. 
''Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate 
and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, 
and many there be which go in thereat : because strait 
is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto 
life, and few there be that find it.'' Matt, xii : 13, 14. 
Cotton ]\Iather says : "In the fate and fire of Sodom 
there was a notable type of the confiagration that will 
arrest this polluted world at the day of judgment.'' 
It seems rather natural that men see types in the ma- 
terial world about them. As sure as creation itself, 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 79 

we cannot miss the purpose for which we were created 
(if we could, God's purpose would be foiled — then He 
could not be aH-powerful), but just how far our range 
of choice affects the ultimate end can be but speculative 
if we trust ourselves. For some purpose, adversity is 
allowed to cross the paths of creatures, so we rise or 
fall according to the strength which we have developed 
in smaller trials when great trials test our strength. 
But it is not by chance that our strength is put to the 
test, for some greater force than we command may have 
need of the life that our bodies house ; hence, according 
to the law of the ^^ survival of the fittest,'' our lives go 
to give force higher up the scale, — and it is all in per- 
fect accord with God's laws. Surely, then, what we 
see in nature must be typical of that which is to be. 
But some one says: ^^Hold up, there; ... do 
you know not that there is also a law in nature that 
causes the mother to give her life in defense of her off- 
spring?" Certainly we could reasonably expect to 
look for the opposite law if one be discovered. Mr. 
Darwin gave us the expression which describes his dis- 
covery ; ^^but," you say, ^'it is unchristian." 



February 9, 1912. 
Whose fault is it ? Darwin did not make the law — 
he discovered that such a law^ operates in nature. 
There is yet another, viz., that of equahzation or 
neutrality, where equal force of activity in opposition 
is exhibited. Then we may look for its opposite — 
culture, etc., etc. Our question is : What does it all 
mean? It means that types exist here on earth, for 
we can see many of them and our reason tells us that 
we may expect to see the rest in the hereafter. God is 
the force and is typified by activity in opposition. It 
may be that the mother force, which we see of superior 
strength in many animals, is typified by the Christ — 
yet our Christian era covers but a little more than 
nineteen hundred years. The mystery deepens. If 
we attempt to swim too long in water that is too deep 
for us, w^e tire in the end and fill a watery grave, so let us 
rise by the law^ of faith and '^walk on the surface.^' 
This fact is clear : we know that Christ was on earth, 
that He lived to bless. We measure Him by the 
criterion which He gave, viz., ^' A tree is judged by its 
fruits.'' We have been judging Him all through the 
age of the present era by that rule, and w^e find that 
the fruit is good, as w^e understand it, yet it would not 
be fair to detract from others because they, likewise, 
were true to that which w^as born in them, though sur- 
passed by the Christ. Then the original proposition 

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MIDNIGHT REVERIE 81 

holds US, viz. : We are but creatures born to a purpose 
and predestined to fill our mission, so what is left to us 
in our power of choice puts us in possession of the 
positive or the negative force to use in the activities 
which we must exhibit. This is in accordance with 
reason, but imagination and faith hold sway in a realm 
of thought beyond the powers of the reasoning faculty, 
and they comfort us. The fact that I feel my de- 
pendence upon the Great Spirit inspires in me the 
obligations I naturally owe — I certainly would be an 
ungrateful being if I did not feel so. Feeling it my 
duty to serve, I naturally seek out a method of doing 
it, and it is thus we move on, gravitating toward God. 
Then in studying types the purpose of the Creator is 
apparent. From the lowest to the highest, one form is 
the type of the next higher in a measure ; when the 
highest form within our knowledge is reached, reason 
tells us that there is something beyond yet to experi- 
ence. If we take the butterfly as a type of the positive, 
then the mosquito will be the type of the negative 
force, or adversity. There it is again — adversity — we 
cannot get rid of that negative force, which some people 
personify as the Devil. The mosquito is needed or he 
would not be, though born in scum, developed in stag- 
nation to become the agent of disease and death. Do 
you ask what can be his purpose? It is certain that we 
would not know our blessings were it not for adversity, 
but why keep our faces turned to the negative when we 
have such beautiful creatures as butterflies to consider? 
Is there not enough of the pure and the true to con- 



82 MIDNIGHT KEVERIE 

aider? But some people are bom like the mosquito, to 
seek stagnation for their abode and feel happy when 
they can probe somebody with their sickly bills ; but 
we need their activity, and those people are as much a 
part of God's creation as the purest and best of our 
kind : shall we despise them? In God's name, no. 
They will, in all probability, never be anything but 
mosquitoes, yet we cannot know what powers may be 
ours in the future to be developed by scientific living — 
I mean that systematic effort on our part to make the 
most of this existence. That means applied knowl- 
edge; the accumulation of the ages past to be con- 
centrated in each individual to enable him to study 
himself. 

When W3 consider the lily, or the butterfly which 
loves to pose thereon as it were, for the health of our 
souls, does it not seem to typify purity and truth? 
And the butterflj^, so joyous in itself, so harmless in its 
activities, and so lovely to look upon, does it not seem 
to typify a sweet angel face? 



February 10, 1912. 

What about adversity? It is the same with this as 
anything else ; if we seek the cause of it, we are carried 
right back to the source of all being and this unanswer- 
able question arises : If adversity, evil, Devil (or what- 
ever name suits you best) does not serve a purpose in 
God's plan of the universe, why does He allow it to be? 
Do you say that the Devil has power independent of 
and beyond that of God? Then I say that God is not 
supreme, which is incompatible with the general notion 
of a Supreme Being, if your assertion be truth. The 
term ^' Devil'' evidently grew out of the superstitions 
of past ages, when it was common to personify forces 
in nature. In that light the term is proper enough, but 
it certainly is detrimental to advancing generations to 
regard the negative force in the same way that the 
ancients did ; but we see a lot of it today. Anyone 
seeking truth should read Robert G. IngersoU's lecture 
on ^^The Skulls" and compare what he says with what 
is in your own nature. The ^^ho!y fathers" and com- 
mon ^'preachers" of small caliber would not have you 
utter a word against present methods of worship, nor 
would they permit a single utterance against that which 
is contained in the Bible. It is this influence that has 
kept us back in the freedom of soul. No doubt the 
good men of the past regarded it necessary to do as 
they have done, Even the stretching of the poor 

(83) 



84 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

heretics, or the burning of those guilty of heresy at 
the stake, may have been necessary for the forward 
march of humanity ; but are we not past that sort 
of thing now, and is it not a part of wisdom to free 
ourselves of all manner of superstitions common to the 
ancients? In proportion as we are able to do this and 
study ourselves in the light of knowledge and experi- 
ence, truth will come to us and faith will give us power. 
^^Holy Father, ^^ I would not have you out of a job, so 
try it on j^ourself and preach your own experience in 
connection with what you know of Christ, and I am 
sure that your so-called ^^regeneration'' will surprise 
even you. One trouble with us is that we insist on 
using those old terms, which through passing ages have 
lost their meaning. We are not able to enter fully into 
conditions of the past and appreciate personally what 
our forefathers experienced, so let us have new writ- 
ings, based on the personal experiences of people to- 
day, and collect the best of them for our future Bible, 
— retaining the old, of course, for reference to, to true 
up our own as we proceed. I am no augur, but I can 
see the future far enough to warrant that Christ's 
utterances, ^^Ye shall do greater things than these," 
and the like, are true, and the manifestations He 
showed us will be quite commonplace if mankind will 
live pure and holy lives as the ancient Jews did. It 
was the faith of Abraham that made Christ possible. 
Down through the forty-two generations as recorded 
by Matthew (i : 17), which were characterized by true 
living and renewed faith in the promises recorded by 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 85 

Abraham, we see the power developed in the product — 
Christ. Those old Jews had their adversities in heart- 
rending fashion, as we shall see, if we but open the old 
Bible and read what they wrote ; but there were those 
who kept themselves pure in accordance with the faith 
handed down to them from Father Abraham, and it is 
in that purity of blood characterized by simple faith 
that we find the fruit of right living — the Christ. Is 
there not enough Divinity manifested through the laws 
of God that held these people to one faith so long to 
convince any right-thinking person that Christ Him- 
self is Divine by reason of it? If Matthew and the 
other gospel writers had themselves understood how 
God produced the Christ, they would have given us a 
different account of Him. It seemed to them that 
they must figure out that the egg which produced 
Christ was fertilized by the Holy Spirit. I do not say 
that it was not so, but my reason tells me that genera- 
tion upon generation of pure, faithful living will produce 
marvelous results concentrated in some prodigy as an 
offspring of purity. Let faith be the leading thought 
of all generations, and purity characterize the lives 
of the people, with all activity founded on truth and 
honor, and we will all be sons of God in the positive 
sense instead of the negative. The key to the situation 
may be traced in Jewish genealogy, but the practical 
working-out of the laws of God consists of using the 
positive force of, our nature, setting at naught the 
negative, by surmounting adversity with the faith of 
an Abraham. Can we do that? Is there anything in 



86 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

this world strong enough to bind the faith of the people 
down to this single Abraham-like faith long enough to 
get the results which the Jews got? Yes, yes. It is 
the Christ, because it has been done. Is there some 
way to put down adversity among boys and girls, men 
and women, husbands and wives, and do it long enough 
to gain the moral strength of the Christ for the rising 
generations? Yes ; it consists in logical teaching from 
the ego outward, faith in Christ by reason of what has 
been done for Him, in Him, through Him, with the aid 
of the God-given spirit to conquer or die on the part of 
every father and mother. What are you going to 
conquer? Adversity, for God gives it for that purpose. 
How are you going to fight the Devil? The ego is 
self-asserting ; it is born with an eager desire to mani- 
fest itself, and it will sometimes use its muscular force 
on that which disputes its God-given right. It will 
fight opposition, but it needs to be taught that for its 
own good it is best to be like Christ ; then when it 
fights to put down opposition it will fight for itself. 
This is the logic that will redeem the world through 
what has been done, resting everything on faith in 
truth and honor and God. 

If we look adversity over at close range, we will see 
that much of our trouble is due to the incongruity of 
these man-made laws of ours ; e. gr., we have a Divine 
law to multiply, yet society steps in to say how that 
shall be done. It is the same proposition of the heretic 
over again. When things are rightly understood the 
love which the presence of the opposite sex inspires will 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 87 

be regarded as holy^ coming as it does directly from 
God. It seems that the female should be given the 
right to avenge any mistrust on the part of the male, 
for the greatest damage to our race comes through the 
environment of the mother during periods of gestation. 
The law as it is, evidently hinders advancement, in that 
the power of motherhood is not recognized as it should 
be ; but there is much to consider. When we get down 
to bed-rock we discover laws that are evidently meant 
to shape the conduct of all reproduction. We notice 
that female animals have the power to command respect 
on the part of the males, but the female of our kind has 
fallen, for some reason, from her high estate. This 
fact has made possible the low ebb of our race, which 
we experience today, due to the following law of 
neutrality. To illustrate : A farmer plows a field and 
seeds it to grain, but perchance he lets it lie idle for a 
season. The cultivation which he has given it has 
made the conditions right for an excellent crop of 
weeds, in the absence of grain on the land during a 
season. Such a crop of weeds that grows! But an- 
other season, if the land be idle, the weeds will make but 
a poor showing, because of the multiplicity of seeds 
matured the year before — all trying to mature their 
seeds, it tends to neutralize one another. It requires 
the hand of the farmer to make conditions right again 
for even weeds to grow well. We see that the opposite 
of the law of neutrality is culture. This culture we 
see in the male animals, which respect the female of 
their kind far above the other males. The males will 



88 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

fight deadly combats, but they have too much of that 
God-given culture to molest a female of their kind. I 
remember an exhibit of locked horns of the moose 
which were found by some hunters in Minnesota. The 
skeletons of the animals lying near the locked horns 
told the tale of the death-struggle of these two monster 
bulls. That was certainly an exhibition of neutrality. 
Men sometimes lock horns in a similar manner over 
some woman, but that is much to be preferred to the 
degenerate neutrality which curses us today. Out of 
the law of multiplicity grows that of neutrality. With- 
out respect on the part of men, which women should 
command, we have that neutralization exhibited by the 
farmer's weed patch, the cure of which is culture. We 
should at least have animal culture. 



February 11, 1912. 

Where is the dog that will fight the female of his 
kind? I remember when a boy I had a dog called 
^^ Polar/' which was, as I thought, a good fighter ; but 
one day he put me to shame. A blacksmith in our 
village had a black dog of the colhe type, but quite a 
little smaller than my dog. I was at his shop one day 
bragging about my dog's fighting qualities. ^^ Oh, boy,'' 
he said, ^^my little dog can lick yours." I knew that 
it could not do it, so the blacksmith hissed his dog 
and it pounced upon the other one, which to my sur- 
prise refused to fight for the first time in his life. I 
felt like killing him, but the blacksmith only laughed, 
saying that dogs will not fight the females of their 
kind. Then I thought better of him, but the lesson 
came home to me when I was a little boy, and I have 
observed the same thing many times since, — not only 
with dogs, but other animals as well. The males, 
ready and willing at a moment's notice to engage in 
deadly combat with some other male of their kind, 
seem to have deep respect for the females. It is a 
natural coincident among animals — a law ; but what 
does it mean for us? It means that woman should be 
given the power to command respect regarding matters 
of motherhood. Because she has not that power, un- 
scrupulous men violate the law of multiplicity and use 
women in obedience to the same law that produced 

(89) 



90 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

such a weed-patch for the farmer ; so in return, grow- 
ing out of the natural inclinations unchecked, the law 
of neutrality lends a guiding hand. Culture, which 
women clothed with power will command, would put 
us upon an equality with animals again in this respect. 
Otheiwise the haid law, ^^ A survival of the fittest, '' will 
hold sway. 

Adversity, then, is due in a measure to our inability 
to regulate ourselves properly. In other words, we 
have not advanced far enough yet to rule the wild 
animal of our nature, but go headlong like an unthink- 
ing patch of worthless weeds, creating conditions which 
throw us back on God's gracious laws for healthful con- 
tinuation of our species. 

It is not alone in relation to sexes that adversity 
comes upon us, but any time we get off the bed-rock 
foundation of truth and honor, we have to suffer ; e. g,^ 
the trusts. Were we to trace back that corporation 
law to its beginning we would have to go back of Solon, 
nearly 600 years before Christ, to find the origin of it. 
In tracing Greek history, the great law-giver, Solon, 
used or allowed the corporation principle, yet his laws 
were such an improvement in this respect over those of 
Draco, his predecessor, that the poor people adopted 
them gladly. From its inception this law allowing 
individuals to form corporations was a fraud on the 
common people, and the wonder is that it could sur- 
vive down to the present time, very little changed from 
the way the ancients used it. It was an invention of 
the nobles, and served its purpose so admirably well 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 91 

that we have come to regard it as a necessity. What 
is it, anyway? To be concise, it is simply a fictitious 
person in law ; that which is incorporeal, of course, has 
no body. In olden times creditors could seize the body 
of debtors and hold them for payment of debt, but the 
ruHng classes exempted themselves from that by acting 
through corporations;; i. e., those fictitious persons 
existing only in contemplation of law, which had no 
body. It is a ^^skin game'' from its inception, and in 
this age, when conditions are so favorable for massing 
such immense fortunes, we are able to see results of the 
unfair law more plainly than did our forefathers. The 
law should be wiped off the statute-books, in behalf of 
humanity. Let men face conditions openly and be 
responsible for their acts, not try to be hiding eternally 
behind the incorporation law to shield their rascality ; 
it certainly would be more healthy for the souls of those 
favored individuals to remove their dark covering. Do 
you ask how we could get along without the law? 
Form joint-stock companies. Of course, municipal 
and eleemosynary corporations cannot be perverted, 
in that they bestow public benefits, but private and 
gt/asi-pubUc corporations are a menace to good citizen- 
ship. Let us arise and abolish them. 



February 11, 1912. 

^^Oh/' some one says, ^4et them alone and the law of 
neutrality will take care of the monsters." If we let 
them alone it certainly will, for the eagerness with 
which each tries to manifest itself will create the con- 
dition of the farmer's weed-patch again, but we keep 
pulling at the evil weeds, thus makes it possible for 
some to thrive well indeed. Let us exhibit culture in 
another way, viz., through the mother force in nature, 
for the weak need our protection now if ever. This is one 
adversity which we can conquer, thus gain strength by 
so doing to conquer others. 

We come now to those adversities which arise out of 
our own nature ; ^. 6., the tendency of the negative self 
to rule, or wish to rule, our acts. In searching down 
deep for my trouble in this respect, I have concluded 
that food is either positive or negative in its action in 
my system. There are days that I feel fine, high- 
spirited and courageous to the point of aggression ; but 
other days find me somewhat moody. I have not 
reached any definite conclusions so as to list positive 
and negative foods for my system, but as far as mj^ 
personal observations have been noted it seems that 
fish has a negative action when I eat of it. 

Then again the whole family will be affected in some 
unaccountable manner. IVe heard teachers say that 
their school as a whole has off days ; i. e., days on which 

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MIDNIGHT REVERIE 93 

the children do not do so well as usual. There may be 
those who will say the teachers' food in an undigested 
state may be the cause of those off days, but it does 
not seem so, since the separate intellects, coming from 
separate homes with a wide variety of diet, will ex- 
hibit the same unaccountable stupidity on certain days. 
These are, of course, ^^bad days'' for the teacher. 
Now, I am persuaded that some electrical or other un- 
seen force is the cause of such conditions. We set 
them down as adversities ; it matters not if they have 
them all worked out in Boston, they are realities which 
we need to understand and guard against. 

Again, there are those external forces which seem to 
surround us with the intent of absorbing our life for 
the benefit of themselves. These are certainly ad- 
versities of the worst type for the weaker party. Mil- 
lions upon millions of the poor working classes have 
felt the force of greed closing around them, and then 
the ebbing away of their lives in consequence. These 
are the serious adversities which God allows to test 
and make strong those of us who are fittest ; but oh, 
the agony, the anguish of soul experienced by the 
victims whose power is too weak to master. They are 
in the coils of the agent of destruction. It makes 
passers-by stand aghast and wonder if God did not 
resolve to improve upon His original laws when He 
gave Abraham his promise ages ago. At best we 
certainly need the mother force to have compassion 
upon the weak, though we know in cool, calculating 
certainty that the venomous serpent has to be fed ; 



94 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

but the wailing cries of innocent children reach my 
ears, and I too cry out in compassion, '^Oh, God, if it 
be possible, let mercy temper the heart of greed, for it 
was Christ who sacrificed His Hfe on Calvary's cross 
for this very thing, — to show men the true way/' 
Oh, adversity, it is only on the wings of faith that we 
can rise above thee! So, to fathers, mothers and 
children of the oppressed, there is this consolation for 
all : You were born to fight adversity ; when you con- 
quer in your own souls, reward is yours ; it will fill you 
with new hope. If adversity conquers you, then you 
were never intended to be a man, so die like the craven 
you are. 

It behooves every one to study himself, trace the 
conscious mind in the dark hours of night to ascertain 
if he be a man (maybe some low spirit animates your 
frame) . The man will feel the cords that bind him to 
his Maker ; follow, follow these threads however small 
they may be, and the light will burst upon you in glory 
and God will claim His son. Adversity — what are you 
that you should make the soul of man cower? By 
faith in truth and honor through what has been done, 
we soar to conquer. 



Febeuary 12, 1912. 

What is gold in Christianity? I mean that which 
will not tarnish, being separated into its elements. 

I have a dear friend who is a preacher (but that does 
not hurt him), yet he seems to think that I am well on 
the road to the bad, using the terms that he probably 
would use in this connection. I do not know, of course, 
that he considers me as good as lost, but he made me a 
present last Christmas of a nice little Testament — a 
pocket Testament in American Standard version of 
the League Edition. It is bound in velvet sheep of 
tan color, and was presented in a case — so I feel quite 
sure that the donor meant for me to carry this little 
book in my pocket and read it whenever I had time to 
do so. Well, I can say truthfully that I appreciated 
the gift probably more sincerely than he knows, and I 
have read it carefully, marking those passages which I 
thought especially fine, also those which made the 
opposite impression on me, as I proceeded. I formed 
the opinion of myself years ago that I am not worth a 
cent as a faker, so the brother must expect that I shall 
present both sides when I get to that point. 

It is not out of the way to say that I was reared as a 
Sunday-school boy and had ample opportunity to study 
the whole Bible. Later, while yet in college, I joined 
the Christian Church ; still later, the Methodist ; and 
later yet, the Presbyterian : but they all evidently 

(95) 



96 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

thought pretty well of me, for I was never churched, 
not even reprimanded by a deacon, elder, or preacher. 
It may be now that, should they get action on me, I 
would be let out of all of them. But what is a reason- 
ing being to do? I consider my intellect as sacred as 
any church I was ever in ; so if it won't stand for 
certain things which it meets with, what is my duty? I 
never did have any inclination to willfully injure any- 
thing unless it first jumped at me, but the more I read 
and apply the knowledge gained to everyday problems 
the more strongly am I convinced that churches are 
out of gear; i, 6., if we are to measure them with 
humanity and Christ. When any set of persons get 
the notion that they are right, that there is not room in 
God's creation for anything else, that everybody but 
they is doomed to hell, it seems that they are trying 
to hedge in the truth — the eternal truth. They are the 
ones who are trying to fence off a little piece of the 
mighty ocean as their own sacred property, nor would 
they allow even a gull to fly over it. A great fence they 
have, and a great property even though they could get 
title to it ! Come, brethren, get out of your shell ; 
enlarge your sympathies and work as God evidently 
intended every one should work, from self outward. 
Don't consider it any part of your business to condemn 
another until you, yourself, are perfect. Follow Christ 
a little closer, for He even says : ^^ Judge not." Luke 
vi : 37. I put this in, as it may have occurred to you, 
to keep the brethren off my back. 

In considering Christianity we must first inquire, 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 97 

What is it, so we will know gold from dross when the 
test is applied? There are four principal writers, aside 
from Paul, who attempt to say what constitutes 
Christianity. This little League Edition I have prints 
in black-faced type those words which are supposed to 
have been spoken by Christ, so it is emphasized in 
that it is an easy matter to get the essence of what 
Christ taught. This of course is Christianity as I 
understand it. Paul and other writers give us side- 
lights on the subject, which is close, indeed, to Christ ; 
yet in the strict sense the eleven apostles chosen by 
Christ Himself are the ones to whom we must look for 
a report of His activity while with them. As they 
report the impression which Christ made on them, so 
Christianity is to us today. Honestly, I do not believe 
that the gospel writers were trying to make out a 
case, though they did try to connect the New Testa- 
ment onto the Old and make the whole one complete 
Bible, for there is frequent reference to the Old Testa- 
ment, emphasizing the thought which they had im- 
bibed, viz., that Christ was sent directly from God. 
The prophecies are restated in many instances for the 
evident purpose of combatting the Jews. 



February 13, 1912. 
This question so stirred the underconscious mind that 
he was very active last night from a httle past 12 
o'clock. Some domestic matter had rung the alarm- 
bell of my mental apparatus, so to speak, and sleep 
fled. Why? Because interest in the underconscious 
mind grew and grew, and myriads of visions popped 
into the conscious mind as questions pushed out. I 
could write for hours and hours right now and not tell 
half the matter that was up for consideration last 
night. Needless to say that it was quite an early 
morning hour that saw me sleep again. I would 
start now^ and get it down on paper, but there must be 
some kind of order maintained, so have to wait for the 
proper place in this recording business. Much needs 
to be said for the benefit of anyone who may desire to 
follow the developments of my underconscious mind 
under systematic study, but now I will quit with the 
statement that he got too ^^foxy'' for me last night, 
and I had to call a halt. Several times I would stop 
him to see if I were dreaming, but no, I was in full 
possession of my faculties undisturbed. I was not 
really ready for the matter which I had up, so thought 
that I would await a more opportune time. I beheve 
in visions when they come so systematically to one's 
mind as these came last night to me. I believe that I 
could have been carried into the very presence of the 

(OS) 



MIDNIGHT KEVERIE 99 

origin of all that of which the human mind is capable of 
contemplating. I shall take occasion to write some of 
last night's experiences later, but now I want to pro- 
ceed with ^^Gold in Christianity/' 

Looking Christ right in the face, as near as possible 
at this late date, we are impressed, first of all, with the 
powerful insight which He had into the human heart. 
His penetration seems almost Divine, for He was able 
to look so far into the future that we wonder today 
whether the world will end before we really come up to 
His standards ; yet we observe that the world has made 
steady progress towards the ideals which He held up. 
He was a prodigy in the moral world, yet I am fully 
convinced that what He accomplished may be done 
again in like manner, and even surpassed, unless time 
may prove to be too short. Barring the possibility of 
some sudden destruction of this world of ours, or the 
operation of such forces in nature as to cause it to be 
depopulated, and it is unreasonable — ^incompatible, in 
fact, with the law of evolution — to assume that we can- 
not reach the perfection which Christ was able to out- 
line for us, and surpass it in regular progress. When 
mothers and fathers come to understand and act upon 
the knowledge which science, even today, has given 
us, we will see the practical results of it. There is an 
unlimited power in motherhood, considering both the 
prenatal environment and the nativity of children. 
Before birth, probably during the whole period of 
gestation, children are influenced by what the mother 
gives attention to, and after birth the little ones con- 



100 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

tinue to be influenced mostly by the mother. Sug- 
gestions here and there, during wakeful hours or in the 
ears of the sleeping child, gradually shape the character 
of the developing ego. If mothers, all of them, only 
knew the power they have! Instead of trusting to 
passing chance, they would proceed to mold the 
characters of their offspring. Suppose that some pure- 
hearted mother from the date of conception would 
earnestly desire that her child be endowed with Christ- 
like faith ; then suppose that this desire would grow 
upon her until it became the ruling motive of the 
mother-heart, in wakeful hours, in prayer,in reverie, in 
dream, — what do you think the offspring would be like ? 
Now suppose that this same condition be repeated for 
generation after generation, each more earnest and 
prayerful than the preceding one, — what do you think 
would be the result? Mothers, why do j^ou not rise 
and discharge the full purpose of your creation? The 
man is but a mere drone in comparison with the real 
worth of motherhood. True, we need good drones in 
every hive of bees. In motherhood the woman stands 
next to God. Is it a trifling thing? 



February 13, 1912. 
According to scientific research, we have several 
miUion years yet before the sun will fail us. Now, if 
some eccentric comet doeis not molest us, or some 
planetoid or something ^^butt in'' and send us off at a 
tangent, or some other unexpected thing happen to 
mar our progress, Christianity in another cycle or 
two will be so much a part of us that some of the very 
laws of God will be inoperative, because of the ab- 
sence of some things to act upon, and higher and bet- 
ter laws will be commonly understood and used. What 
a promising future for man! But let us stop a mo- 
ment to think. Had it not been for Christ men would 
have been consuming one another by this time as 
fire might, had there been no lesser lights to direct 
humanity. In the great future before us, who knows 
that the law of gravitation may not be suspended 
by that of faith? Who knows that the cause of death 
may not be suspended by the law of faith? When 
we view the possibilities ahead, is it not worth our 
while to make the cause of Christ a personal mat- 
ter with us, and press on and on, treading adversity 
under foot as nothing, fighting as God intended us 
to do, in full light of the fact that truth and honor 
are of personal interest to me, and you will have to 
put me down before dishonor can be seated, — then iny 
spirit will live and grow and conquer. 

(101) 



102 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

If each person thought that way, what a hard time 
adversity would have! It is within the power of 
mothers to so mold each of their offspring, but it would 
be much easier to do were fathers, too, imbued with the 
same spirit to conquer or die. 

Judging by the foregoing, a reader might think that 
everything under the name of Christianity nowadays 
is embraced as '^gold/' Not so ; nor is all that which 
is reported as Christ's own words regarded as ^^gold.'' 
Do you ask what good it is to air those things which 
seem inconsistent with the whole, judging the tree by 
its fruit? My answer is that men have been forced 
honestly to reject what has gone under the name of 
Christianity, purely because their intellects, with the 
light they had, could not indorse a lot of the ^'rof 
which the '^holy fathers'' insist on as essentials. Let 
us reason together, then, to separate gold from dross in 
the light of subjective study. 

The divinity of Christ as reported by the gospel 
writers has been the cause of much dissension, but the 
Unitarians could not reject the whole on account of 
that trouble, though we do not know how many men 
have. When John (^^the voice of one crying in the 
wilderness") was in prison, he wished to know if Jesus 
be the Christ, or ^' shall we look for another?" Matt. 
ii:2. His messengers were given these words: ^^Go 
and tell John the things which ye hear and see : the 
blind receive then- sight, the lame walk, the lepers are 
cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised 
up, and the poor have good tidings preached to them. 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 103 

And blessed is he^ whosoever shall find no occasion of 
stumbling in meJ^ Those words are in black-faced 
type in my little book, so they are supposed to be 
Christ's own words. Why did He not say ^^YES/' 
with capitals. Why did He evade the direct answer? 
All through this black-faced type reading I find that 
Christ invariably refers to himself as the ^^Son of 
man.'' He often refers to His Father ; so do we. 

I have a little book before me, which is called ^'The 
Deity of Christ/' by Robert E. Speer. In the argu- 
ment therein presented to tell people why he (Rev. 
Speer) believes in the divinity of Christ, I was im- 
pressed with the fact that many references were given 
to show that Christ was God incarnate. Taking his 
view of it, there was a time when heaven was deprived 
of its ruler, yet during that same time we find Christ 
referring to ^^His Heavenly Father." I wonder if the 
reverend gentleman knows the ^^ Lord's Prayer:" 
^'Our Father, who art in heaven. . . ." Jesus 
evidently got the thought that He is the Christ — that 
the promise of Abraham's God, through his subjective 
revelations was fulfilled in Him. Indeed, this seems 
to be truth. Now, there is much in the Old Testament 
which Christ had access to, and in order to make his 
work effective He had to support it ; yet He felt His 
inability to do it. 



February 14, 1912. 

But His eyes were opened by the power of faith in 
Him, because He threw Himself unreservedly upon the 
power of God through faith. I believe that had John's 
messengers come to Him later, they would have gotten 
the direct answer— ^^ YES." 

I read in Matt, xvi : 28, in black-faced type : ^^ Verily 
I say unto you there are some of them that stand here, 
who shall in no wise taste of death till they see the Son 
of man coming in his kingdom." This seems clear to 
us that ^^his kingdom" meant the rule of righteousness, 
which they evidently saw in Christ, to say the least ; 
but this with other passages of scripture is evidently 
to blame for the fact that the disciples and Paul be- 
lieved implicitly that they should see Him descending 
from the sky to set up His everlasting kingdom. In 
Luke xxi : 32 I read, black-faced type : ^^ Verily I say 
unto you, this generation shall not pass away, till all 
things be accomplished." In Mark ix : 1 we find : 
^'Verily I say unto you, there are some here of them that 
stand by, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they 
see the kingdom of God come with power." John even 
says that Christ told him that those who believed on 
Him should not die ; but John goes off at a tangent, 
as may be seen by reading him ; e. g., v. 31. Then turn 
and read viii : 14. These things and many others 
cause one to regard the Christ as a human product, 

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MIDNIGHT REVERIE 105 

rather a prodigy in the moral world. I do not mean to 
detract in the least from the sublimity of His character, 
nor does the facing of facts have the least detractory 
influence on my mind. I simply accept facts because 
they are that way, not as I would like to have them, 
perhaps. 

For me, I cannot conceive of that which is divine 
meeting with the least inconsistency in the practical 
working out of that thing. Why should Christ allow 
His disciples to get the wrong notion of His second 
coming? Then, at the time He was dwelling on the 
matter in question — Matt, xxiv : 14, 51 — it is quite 
noticeable that He used DanieFs terms, ^^abomination 
of desolation,'' to describe the end. There is much in 
those words of said chapter that does not ring true to 
my notion of things. Verse 17 says, ^^Let him that is 
on the housetop not go down to take out the things 
that are in the house,'' etc., which gives the impression 
of sweeping desolation as in the time of Noah, as He 
says, verse 19: ^'But woe unto them that are with 
child, and to them that give suck in those days!" 
20 : ^^ And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, 
neither on the Sabbath," etc. 29 : ^^Immediately after 
the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, 
and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars 
shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall 
be shaken." 30 : ^^ And then shall appear the sign of the 
Son of man in heaven : and then shall all the tribes of 
the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man com- 
ing in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." 



106 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

. . . 34 : ^^ Verily I say unto you, This generation 
shall not pass, till all these things be accomplished.'* 
35 : ^^ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words 
shall not pass away." 

It is evident that Christ was short in his notions of 
the size of this earth ; then He missed it in matter of 
fact, too, as you may have noticed. Again, He was 
short in His knowledge of science, for He says that : 
'^Perceive ye not, that whatsoever from without goeth 
into the man, it cannot defile him.'' Mark vii: 18. 
It seems to me that we look quite closely nowadays as 
to what '^ goeth into the man,'' and just for the reason 
that it is sure to defile him. I never thought of it 
before, but maybe that passage is reason for our not 
having our pure-food law long, long ago. Do you say 
that He would not be expected to know scientific facts 
as we know them today? I certainly would expect 
just that, were I persuaded that He was God incarnate, 
as Brother Speer argues so earnestly. It is to be re- 
membered that these things are out of the direct line 
of His preeminence. That in which Christ stands with- 
out a peer concerns those matters which influenced 
Jewish thought centering in Abraham's faith, for that 
held together the Jewish race. 



February 16, 1912. 
Last night before I retired I got down the old family 
Bible and read about Abraham, not in the fashion of 
*' preachers,'' to toot my horn so that all the family 
would be bored, but more like I think Christ would 
have done — '^Let not the right hand know what the 
left doeth." (I haven't time to look up the exact 
quotation, but it runs something like that.) So I read 
in silence. I have had these things in my mind so long 
that I cannot say that much good resulted from the 
reading, yet I read a dozen or so chapters, beginning 
with the 12th chapter of Genesis. I was trying to get 
a more definite line on that which influenced Jewish 
thought. The record comes right out, and says that 
Abraham 'Halked with God." Now, what can that 
mean? To me it means that Abraham followed the 
cords which bound him to his Maker ; i. e., a way has 
been provided for man to know that he is more than 
mere flesh and blood. It must have been for the 
specific purpose of getting man to understand the law 
of faith that Abraham was led in the manner recorded. 
He was about to offer up Isaac, his only son, in obedi- 
ence to this ^^call," with which most of us are famihar ; 
yet Isaac was his only son and he an old man with 
Sarah, his wife, also old. This may be allegorical, but 
it served Its purpose to influence the Jewish mind- 
Then the sign of the covenant, as Abraham understood 

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108 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

liig God, 15 most significant, too, for it was instrumental 
in holding the Jews to their chosen purpose, viz., to 
produce the Christ. 

With that thought before us, let us proceed to ex- 
amine those precepts of Christ acknowledged by all 
men who reason a little to be unsurpassed by any 
teacher in any time : thus, knowing our bearings, con- 
sider the ''gold." For me, I do not believe it accept- 
able to the intelligence of God. Himself, for men to go 
on bhndly forever following mere sentiment. Our intel- 
lects were given to support by reason those things in 
which we believe, but if we habitually maintain a 
blubbering sentiment of love, like two children of 
opposite sex in what is called "puppy love," do you 
think that worthy of adults? For this reason, I will- 
fully reject all sentiment bordering on "putty-faced'' 
love, nor can I express the feeling of disgust I have for 
"preachers" who so indulge. They should be more 
manly, and back up the reverence they feel (if thej" 
really feel any) with adequate reasoning, led, of course, 
by faith. I am fully aware that philosophers look 
with similar disgust upon reverie, allowing it as mere 
pastime, but my answer in support of what I believe 
to be right is this : The purest and best that has been 
handed down to succeeding generations from the fore- 
fathers has been that which was evidently forced up 
through the underconscious mind into consciousness, 
and recorded. It is unanswerable argument to say 
men are made after that fashion. The why of this 
kind of thing leads one to contemplate God in and 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 109 

through His laws. Christ is no exception, for the 
croppings in His character point to the excessive in this 
line — He being developed abnormally in subjective 
study. Out of this grew His great insight into the 
hearts of others. He knew how He operated things 
and could point out the way for others. In Mark 
ix : 17, 30 we have the record of a pecuUar incident 
(turn to it and read, if you are not familiar with the 
context), and we get a glimpse of the working of His 
mind in verse 19 : ^^ And He answered and said unto 
them, ' O faithless generation, how long shall I be with 
you? how long shall I bear with you? bring him unto 
me.' '' The disciples had been trying to do that which 
was beyond them, and Christ knew just what was their 
trouble — faith was wanting; and Christ said: ^^This 
kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer'' ; i. e.. 
He wished to increase their faith when they came to 
that which was beyond them. In many places we 
read : ^^ As your faith so be it unto you." In verse 23 
of the story above, we read that Christ talked to the 
father of the child (evidently to get a union of faith, 
i. e., a consensus), then said ^^AU things are possible to 
him that believeth." He habitually searched the 
depths of His soul, and prayed, which gave Him a 
sense to divine truth, 



February 16, 1912. 

Then what is gold in Christianity? It is that part 
of the teaching of Christ which conforms to the dom- 
inant idea of the Jewish faith. If we get outside of 
that particular thing, we find that Christ was quite 
limited in this grasp of that which He considered. 

In Genesis xii : 2, 3: ^^And I will bless thee, and 
make thy name great ; and thou shalt be a blessing : 
and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him 
that curseth thee : and in thee shall all families of the 
earth be blessed.'^ This is what Abraham sensed, 
following the threads of his soul, yet the simple thing 
became great enough as the force grew and grew to 
produce the Christ. The whole Jewish race was ex- 
pectant, their faith was quickened, for mothers, fathers 
and all were looking ahead to the fulfillment of the 
promise of God to Abraham ; but pure living has its 
trials according to the established law of the universe. 
We see the Jewish people going up or down in pro- 
portion as they kept the faith of Abraham. Is it not 
all simple enough? But that is the way the Great 
Spirit works when we see the truth. 

It seems to me that the greatest wisdom which Christ 
showed is in the fact that He tried to teach but twelve 
men what was in Him. He was so far in advance of 
His age that people could not understand Him. In- 
deed, He is yet so far ahead of the average thought of 

(110) 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE HI 

the world that people do not understand Him, In 
fact, were we all able to grasp the situation, we would 
plow our fields for our neighbors, taking absolutely no 
thought of ourselves. How many decades will inter- 
vene before that condition becomes prevalent? 

When Christianity is yet so far in advance of modern 
thought, how can anyone say that there will yet be 
that which is better? We know simply because we 
are born to advance, to conquer adversity, and thus 
gain strength to rise higher as the waymarks of our 
journey are put in the distance. It is grand to con- 
template the gold, not only in the teaching of Christ 
but also what is reflected bj^ the lesser lights as well. 
Anyone who is true to himself and to his God is a 
positive force in nature. It is the union of such-like 
spirits that furnishes the moral force of the world, a 
force that will gravitate and gather to itself power. 
Adversity is a mere negative condition, a reaUty, of 
course, but of use to mankind. Christ tells us that 
this condition has to be. Considering Judas : Mark 
xiv:21 — ''For the Son of man goeth, even as it is 
written of him ; but woe unto that man through whom 
the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man 
if he had not been born.'' Can anyone understand 
this to be in harmony with God's plan? It seems to 
me that Christ omitted one grand beatitude in His 
Sermon on the Mount, viz. : Blessed is the sinner, for 
his way is hard. Adversity is God's own way, but 
each individual is supposed to follow that which is in 
him to support the force that created him, and as Paul 



112 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

says in Romans ix : 19, 24, considering the potter's 
power over the clay in his hands: ^^O man, who art 
thou! replying against God? Shall the thing formed 
say unto him that formed it, Why didst thou make me 
thus? Or hath not the potter a right over the clay 
from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto 
honor and another unto dishonor?'' Friends, Paul 
was a hard thinker and true to that which was in him. 
I honor the name of Paul ; but of course he got into 
deep water trying to reason his w^ay through from the 
hypothesis of our religion. He tries to ftell us that 
through Adam all men are sinners, so through Christ, 
by grace men are free from the law of sin and death, 
if they believe. To my mind, that can't be so, be- 
cause I have too deep a reverence for God and His laws 
to seek to condemn that which He has made, hence 
before I can find my way through I test out the hy- 
pothesis assumed by religious teachers. By reason I 
know that what is, came into being through the opera- 
tion of the laws established by God, and it is not be- 
coming in me to pronounce His creation a failure, or 
any part of it a failure — I accept it as it is as being the 
way God intended it to be at this time. If He wanted 
Adam or anyone else to be a vessel of dishonor, the 
power to so make him was His. What are you going 
to do about that, brother? 



February 17, 1912. 

I hear some good sister saying: '^Then would you 
disregard Christ, and what are you going to do about 
His resurrection?^' Good sister. No ; Christ was true 
to His Father, all honor to His name ; if He made mis- 
takes, they were not of the heart — so with anyone re- 
flecting the divinity within him. As for His resurrec- 
tion, let us fall back on the laws of God. If Christ 
was resurrected, it shows what power is ours when we 
come to know ourselves. God certainly does not bend 
to passing influences to upset what He has established, 
then what He does must be accomplished through His 
laws. His way of doing things is the same forever; 
thus we come to trust Him. Then, on the evidence we 
have, Christ was resurrected ; if so, the same thing will 
be done again when the same conditions prevail again. 
Is that not simple enough? 

This good sister wants to ask again : '^Do you think 
Christ was Divine ?'' I certainly think He was the 
most Divine being that ever came to this earth. We 
have but to trace Jewish history to see the hand of Go:i 
operating through the people who were wise enough to 
let in Divine aid. All the patriarchs who were true 
gathered to themselves power in accordance with God's 
established laws. The greater their responsibihties 
through increasing' numbers, and the truer the char- 
acters, the more wonderful became the developing 

(113) 



114 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

power at their command. We read of those mighty 
men: a Samson, perhaps, was the result of concen- 
trated desires felt by the people to be needed to pre- 
serve their identity as a nation in those times. The 
faith in activity produced some such greatness as we 
read about in Samson's career. Then, David, Solo- 
mon, EHjah and the other grand characters we read 
about played their parts well, indeed. This thought 
comes home to us with force, viz. : Those great char- 
acters, through their faith in truth, honor and God, 
were by their acts making the Christ a possibility. Of 
course they did not know it, nor was it necessary for 
them to know, since they were led by faith. 

Let us bring home to ourselves true conditions, good 
sister. Let me ask you: ^^ Is there anything nowadays 
to hold the faith of our people to one thing long enough 
to get the results which the Jews accomplished ?'' We 
are not forsaken, because the same Heavenly Father 
rules as of old. We do not even have to go back to 
those old records to know that He still is, though we 
find promise after promise recorded in our favor. It 
is all summed up in the grand conception of individual 
divinity. The ancients needed some personality in 
whom to rest their faith. Thomas said : ^'Lord, show 
us the way.'' Christ, not deeming it advantageous to 
argue the point, said to him in most concise terms : ^^I 
am the way.'' What more could we ask for, consider- 
ing the sublimity of the character who so repUed? 
Y t, we are progressing and have met with that which 
challenges our reason to hold the faith. Shall we sit 



MIDNIGHT EEVERIE 116 

idly by, hugging to ourselves the truth we feel in our 
souls? Or is it our duty to seize all the force within our 
grasp and plunge ahead? My good sister, I am talk- 
ing to the force in motherhood now. 

Does the good sister ask : ^' What good is in the state- 
ment, 'Blessed is the sinner, for his way is hard'?'^ 
Are we not all brothers in need of that living sympathy? 
What does it matter if some one, by necessity or other- 
wise, keeps a saloon and sells damnable drinks over the 
bar? Is he not our brother? Did not the same God 
who made us also make him? Now, what is our status 
through favor that we are so much better than another 
of our kind, when he hkewise fulfills his mission on 
earth as a vessel of dishonor, maybe. Are we not big 
enough of soul to bless that man who teaches us 
through the adversity which he bears, for sake of 
humanity, to show people a better way? Of course he 
does not so regard, but his Maker did when He de- 
signed the pattern of such men. Can we not say, 
then, from the depths of our souls, '^ Blessed is the 
sinner because of the adversity he brings us to conquer 
and gain strength thereby by reason of the established 
law of activity^'? But this upsets the hypothesis of 
our religion. Let it be so, if we must make a defense 
of that in which we beUeve. 



Febkuary 17, 1912. 

What is individual divinity? This question borders 
on that which I had up for discussion the night my 
underconscious mind did himself grandly, but of less 
significance. 

I am persuaded that what man wills and holds in 
faith has something of the creative tendency. If this 
is a fact, man got it from his Maker. Now, I may be 
thinking hard at some abstract thing or other, and for 
some unaccountable reason set a limit at which to rest 
myself. That rest will come. It was foreordained by 
that power at my command, so had to be so. To that 
extent I am divine. With this nucleus, we have that 
from which to build. 

The figure of water seems to me to express more 
exactly what I have in mind than anything else in my 
thoughts. Water is the type of life itself. The prop- 
erties of water represent quite closely what I mean 
when I use the term ^ individual divinity.^' 

Water is a unit — an expanding unit, though in its 
normal condition is almost incompressible if confined. 
A particle of water is water still, though but a single 
molecule composed of its two atoms of hydrogen and 
one of oxygen. In its expanded condition under 
the influence of heat it develops tremendous power, 
often disrupting the bounds of its confinement, yet in 
its freedom is yielding, accommodating itself to any 

(116) 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 117 

shape of a vessel which may contain it. Break the 
vessel and the water therein contained seeks its level 
and harmoniously joins forces with other particles of 
its kind to gravitate toward the mighty ocean, the 
source from which water comes to us. Then the 
streams, sparkling and pure or muddy and defiling, 
flow on and on to replenish the source. 

This seems to represent life, and the figure may help 
us to understand the parts we play in our divinity. 
Each of us is from the source, that is self-evident. 
That we partake of the same nature as the source is also 
an axiom. Other qualities fit naturally into place when 
we get our ttue bearings. What is your Ufe and mine? 
Are you a part of some pure, flowing stream, making 
your way on with others of your kind, giving and re- 
ceiving in purity? Or have you been tossed up some- 
where and found lodgment in some depression of the 
earth's crust, there receiving forever, giving forth 
nothing, so becoming a menace — s. place to breed dis- 
ease and death? It may be that a misty cloud is 
your status, or some muddy, sluggish stream, carry- 
ing all manner of foreign matter in your course. What 
will the mighty ocean do when you bring such rubbish 
along with you? If the stream cannot free itself, the 
terrible billows of the roUing ocean are sure to cast all 
foreign, worthless matter upon the sands. It may be 
that your usefulness is in some hydrostatic condition 
to exhibit equilibrium let pressure be what it may, or 
that of hydraulics to give impetus to the inert. Per- 
chance under the influence of heat you are to be 



118 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

rarefied and confined until you exhibit your divinity 
as the power of steam driving with mighty force under 
perfect control, or blowing up some worthless boiler 
somewhere. My thought is this : Each of us partakes 
of divinity and is useful in his status in accordance with 
the force which rules us, but in no wise are we far re- 
moved from God. Owing to conditions, it may be 
most difficult for some people to yield the obedience 
which they must feel is due their Creator, and, reason- 
ing from types, some may lose their waj^ entirely ; but 
the hfe cannot be lost, in that it will aid something of 
benefit in the great economy of the universe. 

It appears, then, that you and I are a part of divinity, 
though hedged in and fettered to work out our salva- 
tion preparatory to joining the everlasting kingdom of 
God. In yielding obedience in truth, buoyed and 
carried by the mechanism of our natures, we grow in 
grace and our lives get in tune, like a mighty harp, 
responding to such chords as God is pleased to touch. 



February 18, 1912. 

What is Divinity? Now we come in regular order 
to the question which I had up before the undercon- 
scious mind as reported, so we will go into it for the 
purpose of utilizing that force, which I have discovered 
is a part of my makeup. 

It may be well to explain that I am not given to any 
'^preacher method'^ of slopping over at the slightest 
provocation. I may ^^ slush ^^ as some may say, but I 
have to have the evidence to bear me witness ; then 
the natural bent for caution puts on the brakes im- 
mediately. What follows, then, is refined by several 
days' contemplation, though nothing has been written 
on the subject. I shall make as true a report of what 
happened to me as I have power to make. 

For some unaccountable reason I awoke about 2 
o'clock on that night, and lay thinking for some time. 
It popped into my thoughts that I would like to know 
personally about God; i. e., what He is, where He 
is, etc. So the question, ^'What is Divinity?" pushed 
out. Underconscious mind began to unfold in regular 
manner what it contained on the subject. As near as 
I recall, he went too fast for my conscious mind to get 
th« full effect of the matter presented. First, I was 
impressed that God is life, as follows : The fact is, I 
am fattening a pig ; ^. e., giving my attention thus at 
stated times during the day. Underconscious mind 

(110) 



120 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

presented my mind with a picture of a white pig, 
dead. There was no mistake about it ; he was dead. 
A moment of meditation was followed by the same 
picture of the same pig raising his head and climbing 
onto his feet. The digestion of the matter was easy 
and healthful : God is life. Some other matter inter- 
vened which I could not get a line on ; then appeared 
a hideous African face, decorated in a manner to 
frighten one. Some balls of some description were on 
his nose, but not hanging, though around the nostrils' 
edge. I did not understand this at the time, but the 
thing was most unpleasant to have a place when such a 
question was being considered ; so I dismissed it. In 
rapid succession came the following : A figure was pre- 
sented in motion ; i. e., it turned around completely ; 
then again — God is universal. Another picture was 
put, representing a young woman, attired as though 
posing for a painter, with accompanying gestures, 
which indicated some heart implication of the in- 
dividual. Judgment came quickly — God is love. Two 
women were pictured sitting with their heads very 
close together; so close, indeed, that it seemed as 
though they might be attached at the foreheads — God 
is confidence, came the deduction. There was much 
similar matter, which followed in rapid succession, that 
gave me this thought, that God is omniscient, ubiqui- 
tous, omnipotent ; e. g., in the great activity of the 
underconscious mentaUty during those hours of tense 
reverie, a gigantic light or flash would be given to 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 121 

represent the sky or heavens. Then I would call a 
halt — too energetic for me. After resting myself a 
little, I would turn him loose again, and how he would 
perform in the manner described above. Finally I 
was being carried, as it seemed, into space, as if for my 
impertinence, to ^^show me.'' I confessed that I was 
from Missouri, but now I was satisfied. 

By thus condensing the matter presented to me in 
such amazing swiftness, followed mostly by adequate 
deductions as to the meaning of the manifestations, I 
can leave ofif considering the underconscious intelli- 
gence, for the sterner things with which we ^^meet up,'' 
plowing the furrows of time. 

Later the thought came to me that the unpleasant 
figure presented was also a part of divinity, though it 
typified adversity itself. Now, I feel certain that a 
person thinking differently from what I do would not 
meet with like manifestations. My conscious mind 
evidently impresses the underconscious mind day by 
day, and it works over what matter it has received in 
the past in accordance with some established law. 
That law I divine to be God's own estabUshed way of 
shaping one's destiny. Considering it in this light, we 
shape our own destiny by that which we know not, 
hence you and I are a part of divinity ourselves, — but 
just a part, hence limited in the power at our command, 
unless we are in a position by faith to join ourselves, in 
the manner of Christ, to that which has no limit. It 
has been wrought out before our very eyes — *^Why 



122 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

stand ye doubting?^' For me, I am done with doubt 
and fear in so far as I can command it, resorting to the 
use of the law of destiny as it has come to me. 

If I were to point out the trouble with mankind to- 
day, I would say first that we have forgotten Socrates 
in our search for Christ. We are just now approach- 
ing in regular cj^le the age of Socrates, who taught in 
a manner similar to Christ, but from the subjective : 
'^Know thyself/' That has lost its meaning upon our 
ears, though it probably never was understood, for this 
great teacher, Socrates, hke the Christ, was put to 
death by the power of state because, being so far be- 
yond his age, the people could not understand him. 
Turn, then, to Socrates, for he is the leader of the 
Christ in matter of time and logic. 

Referring again to the figure of water as representing 
life : the great Socrates, who hved about 400 years 
B. C. and taught the use of a tutelary spirit centering 
in the subject, is a figure in hj^drostatics. All the force 
at the command of the Hellenic state was brought to 
bear upon this hfe, but it maintained its equilibrium 
in perfect composure, spending his last night in a dis- 
cussion with his disciples on the subject, the immor- 
taUty of the soul — then at the appointed hour drank the 
fatal hemlock. In contrast, as it were, set over 
against this force is the Christ — a figure in hydrauUcs. 
But to be logical, we must begin with Socrates ; study 
ourselves in the light of modem science. All the 
knowledge of ages practically is at our command, but 
we have been slow to grasp the situation. It took an 



MIDNIGHT REVEKIE 123 

IngersoU to free us from the bonds of religious dog- 
matism — I may say bull-dogmatism ; but now, as we 
stand free, let us find ourselves and proceed as God has 
planned it out for us. We must know ourselves first 
and act accordingly before it is becoming in us to 
blubber over in behalf of some unfortunate brother. 
If each of us be diUgent in subjective study, truing 
ourselves up in accordance with the precepts of the 
Great Teacher, there is no power under heaven that 
could restrain the mighty crusade that would follow in 
the wake of such a course — a veritable hydraulic with 
the force of a mighty ocean behind it. 

Before this can be we must turn the great searchlight 
of science upon ourselves, as it were, by X-ray, to 
ascertain the pattern and power of soul, then take our 
forward steps logically, teach our children thus in the 
hope of holding the faith as the Jews of old. As a 
Christian nation we are not logical, so how can we 
hope to attain the promises given? E. g., ^' Ye shall do 
greater things than these. '^ It may be important to 
throw out a caution, lest we get to thinking too strongly 
that ^^we are 'it,^ ^^ whereas we are only a dependent 

^'Part of the stupendous whole, 
Whose body nature is, and God the soul." 

There remains just this to say : The records which 
we have of the Christ may be quite inadequate, indeed, 
but even at the worst, as records they could not be so 
far from the truth as those methods of instruction con- 
cerning Him deviate from those proclaimed by the 



124 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

great Socrates ; so let us go back and get our bearings 
SB to how to teach Christianity, and 

*'It must follow, as the night the day, 
We cannot then be false to an}' man/' 

which is not so now, for we certainly are false to our- 
selves, but the condition of groping is forced upon us. 
However, we have this consolation : 

As eon is to tim^e, 
So God is to man. 



QUOTATIONS FROM NEW TESTAMENT. 

There can be no proper objection to form, if rightly 
understood, so the first ^^gold of Christianity '' is the 
following, from Matt, iii-15 : ^^ Suffer it now ; for thus 
it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.'' iv-4 : ^^It 
is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by 
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'' 
7 : ^^Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God." 
10: '^Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt 
thou serve." [To my mind, Satan means adversity, 
which the Creator allows.] We come now to the 
Sermon on the Mount, Matt, v-3 : ^^ Blessed are the 
poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 
4: ^^ Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be 
comforted." 5: ^^Blessed are the meek: for they shall 
inherit the earth." 6: ^'Blessed are they that hunger 
and thirst after righteousness : for they shall be filled." 
7: ^^ Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain 
mercy." 8 : ^'Blessed are the pure in heart : for they 
shall see God." 9: '^Blessed are the peacemakers: 
for they shall be called sons of God." 10: ''Blessed 
are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' 
sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 11: 
''Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and per- 
secute you, and say all manner of evil against you 

(125) 



126 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

falsely, for my sake/ ^ 12: ''Rejoice and be exceeding 
glad : for great is your reward in heaven/' 13 : ''Ye 
are the salt of the earth.'' 14 : "Ye are the light of the 
world." 16 : "Even so let your light shine before men ; 
that thej" may see your good works, and glorify your 
Father, who is in heaven/' 22 : "But I say unto you 
that every one who is angry with his brother shall be 
in danger of the judgment." 23 : "If therefore thou 
art offering thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest 
that thy brother hath aught against thee, (24) leave 
there th}^ gift before the altar and go thy wslj ; first be 
reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy 
gift." 28 : "But I say unto you that every one that 
looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed 
adultery with her already in his heart." 34 : "But I 
say unto you, Swear not at all, (37) But let your speech 
be Yea, yea; Nay, nay." 39: "Resist not him that 
is evil : but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right 
cheek, turn to him the other also." 40 : "And if any 
man would go to law with thee and take awaj^ thj^ coat, 
let him have thy cloak also, (41) and whosoever would 
compel thee to go one mile, go with him two." 44: 
"But I say unto you, Love j^our enemies, and pray for 
them that persecute you." 48 : "Ye shall therefore be 
perfect, as j^our heavenly father is perfect." vi-1 : 
"Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before 
men to be seen of them ; else ye have no reward with 
your Father who is in heaven, . . . [for such] 
They have received their reward." 3: "But when 
thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy 



MIDNIGHT BEVEBIE 127 



right hand doeth : (4) that thine alms may be in secret/^ 
6: /^But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine 
inner chamber, and, having shut the door, pray to thy 
Father, who is in secret, (8) for your Father knoweth 
what things ye have need of before ye ask Him/^ 
19: ^'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the 
earth, . . . (20) But lay up for yourselves treas- 
ures in heaven. . . . (22) The lamp of the body 
is the eye : if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole 
body shall be full of light. (23) But if thine eye be 
evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. . . . 
(25) Therefore I say unto you be not anxious for your 
life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet 
for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life 
more than the food, and the body than the raiment?'^ 
33 : ^'But seek ye first His kingdom and His righteous- 
ness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 
(34) Be not therefore anxious for the morrow. . . . 
SuflBcient unto the day is the evil thereof.'' vii~l : 
^^ Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what 
judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged ; and with what 
measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you, (3) 
and why beholdest the mote that is in thy brother's 
eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own 
eye? ... (5) Cast out first the beam that is in 
thine own eye." 6: ^^Give not that which is holy 
unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the 
swine. 7: ^^Ask, and it shall be given unto you; 
seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened 
unto you/' 12 ; ''All things therefore whatsoever ye 



128 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also 
unto them.'' 13 : ''Enter ye in at the narrow gate; 
for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth 
to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. 
For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that 
leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it/' 15 : 
''Beware of false prophets. . . . (16) By their 
fruits ye shall know them. (17) Every good tree 
bringeth forth good fruit, but the corrupt tree bringeth 
forth evil fruit. (18) A good tree cannot bring forth 
evil fruit." viii~13 : "Go thy way; as thou hast be- 
lieved, so be it done unto thee." 26: "Why are ye 
fearful, ye of Httle faith?" ix-28 : "BeUeve ye that 
I am able to do this? (29) According to your faith be 
it done unto you." x-7 : "Go ye, preach, saying. The 
kingdom of heaven is at hand. (8) Heal the sick, raise 
the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out daemons : freely 
ye received, freely give." [Casting out dpmons means, 
to my mind, hypnotic influence.] (9) "Get you no 
gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, (10) no 
wallet for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoe? 
nor staff : for the laborer is worthy of his food. (11^ 
And into whatsoever city or village you shall ente?, 
search out who in it is worthy ; and there abide unt: 
ye go forth. . . ." 16 : "Behold, I send you fortv 
as sheep in the midst of wolves. . . . (19) Bi 
when they deliver you up, be not anxious how or what 
ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that hour 
what ye shall speak. (20) For it is not ye that speak, 
but the spirit of your Father that speaketh in you." 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 129 

34: '^ Think not that I come to send peace on the 
earth : I come not to send peace, but a sword.'' [Here 
we have the counterpart of so much love.] xi-25 : ^^I 
thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that 
thou didst hide these things from the wise and under- 
standing, and didst reveal them unto babes. (28) Come 
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and 
I will give you rest.'' xii-12 : ^^ Wherefore it is lawful 
to do good on the Sabbath day. (25) Every city or 
house divided against itself shall not stand." 34 : 
^^For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
speaketh. (35) The good man out of his good treasure 
bringeth forth good things." xiii-12 : ^^For whoso- 
ever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have 
abundance : but whosoever hath not, from him shall 
be taken away even that which he hath." xvi-26 : 
^^For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the 
whole world, and forfeit his life? or what shall a man 
give in exchange for his life?" xvii-20 : ^^For verily 
I say unto you. If ye have faith as a grain of mustard 

eed, ye shall say unto this mountain. Remove hence to 
vonder place ; and it shall remove ; and nothing shall 

te impossible to you." xviii-3 : ^^ Verily I say unto 

ou. Except ye turn and become as little children, ye 
. hall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
. . . (7) Woe unto the world because of the oc- 
casion of stumbling! for it must needs be that the 

>ccasion come ; but woe unto that man through whom 
the occasion cometh!" [I put that down as gold, because 
it is gold — ^it fits into argument supporting a reasonable 



130 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

religion.] 15 : '^ And if thy brother sin against thee, 
go show him his fault between him and thee alone. 
(19) * Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall 
agree on earth as touching anything that ye shall ask, 
it shall be done for them of my Father who is in 
heaven.'' 21: Peter says: ^^How often shall my 
brother sin against me and forgive him? until seven 
times? (22) I say not unto thee, ^ Until seven times' ; 
but. Until seventy times seven." xix-23 : ^^ Verily I 
say unto you, It is hard for a rich man to enter into the 
kingdom of heaven. . . . (26) With men this is 
impossible ; but with God all things are possible." 
xxi-21 : ^^ Verily I say unto you. If ye have faith, and 
doubt not, ye shall do not only what is done to the fig 
tree, but even if ye shall say unto this mountain. Be 
thou taken up and cast into the sea, it shall be done. 
(22) And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, 
believing, ye shall receive." xxii-14 : ^^For many are 
called, but few are chosen." 37: ''Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy mind. (38) This is the great and 
first commandment. (39) And a second like unto it is 
this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." xxiii-9 : 
^'And call no man your father on the earth, for one is 
your Father, even He who is in heaven. (10) Neither 
be ye called masters ; for one is your Master, even the 
Christ. (11) And he that is greatest among you shall 
be your servant. (12) And whosoever shall exalt him- 
self shall be humbled; and whosoever shall humble 
himself shall be exalted." (23) ''Woe unto you, 



MIDNIGHT REVERIE 131 

scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye tithe mint and 
anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier 
matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith ; but 
these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the 
other undone. (24) Ye blind guides, that strain out 
the gnat, and swallow the camel !'^ xxiv-6 : '^And ye 
shall hear of wars and rumors of wars : see that ye be 
not troubled: for these things must needs come to 
pass ; but the end is not yet/^ xxvi-31 : ^^But after I 
am raised up, I will go before you into Galilee.'' 41 : 
''Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. 
(42) My Father, if this cannot pass away, except I 
drink it, thy will be done.'' 52 : ''Put up again thy 
sword into its place ; for all they that take the sword 
shall perish with the sword." xxvii-46 : "Eli, Eli, lama 
sabachthani? that is. My God, my God, why hast thou 
forsaken me?" xxviii : "And lo, I am with you al- 
ways, even unto the end of the world." [The record 
shows that this was after the resurrection that Christ 
spoke thus to his disciples.] 

It appears that the Gospel as recorded by Mark was 
the first to be written, for the others contain all that 
he said, then they added more as they remembered 
personally what occurred. Luke was the doctor, hence 
we may expect that he would inquire more minutely 
into the birth of Christ than the others; so it is he 
who tells us about the communication as recorded, that 
took place between Mary and the Holy Spirit, and 
about the conception of John the Baptist after Eliza- 
beth was old. Of course the Gospel as recorded by 



132 MIDNIGHT REVERIE 

John is full of interest, though practically all the facts 
known about Christ are to be found in Matthew, and I 
have selected therefrom such precepts as shine like 
the sun. They are gold. 



THE END. 



OCT 21 1912 



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